By Shauna Bannon Ward

Copyright rsvplive

Catherine Ardagh shared that she is “tired and exhausted” after opening up about the struggle to find a school place for her autistic son Darragh.

The TD for Dublin South-Central gave birth to her twin sons, Sean and Darragh, in 2019 and they are now due to start primary school.

She explained that they were both born early at 35 weeks and Darragh was a bit smaller, but he was meeting milestones in his first year.

Catherine appeared on Oliver Callan’s RTE Radio 1 show to share her experience.

“They were thriving for the first year. I remember the boys were in the Oireachtas creche at the time and there was a 12-month assessment where they tell you how they’re doing and if they’re meeting their milestones.

“They said they were both brilliant and meeting their milestones,” she said. “I was aware that I was an older mom and I was a bit worried about developmental milestones.

“I was more aware of autism as a public representative. It was just something that I was glad to hear.

“When Darragh was about 15 months, he got an infection and we started noticing strange behaviours.

“He stopped answering his name, he stopped making eye contact and he was engaging in repetitive behaviours.

“We didn’t really know what was going on. We thought it was maybe a symptom of the ear infection.”

They brought him to the hospital and a junior doctor suggested that it would have been developmental and so they were referred for further help.

Darragh received a three-level diagnosis, which is considered profound autism, and is non-verbal.

Catherine explained that the mainstream school setting doesn’t suit his needs and the staff struggle with him.

She shared that in her role as a TD she is always being contacted by parents whose children have been diagnosed and are worried about trying to secure a placement in school.

“We’ve had a huge struggle with Darragh and trying to get space in schools,” she said. “It’s been hard and we’re tired and exhausted.

“All families are tired and exhausted that have children with additional needs.”

She continued: “It’s like winning the lotto, trying to get a school place for your child.

“I have one son who’s neurotypical and another son who has autism. It’s so easy getting Sean a school place. He could go anywhere.

“Everything for him is so easy. Parties are easy, playdates are easy – his life compared to Darragh’s is so easy and it’s so unfair.”

She applied to over a dozen schools, which each have their open application process, to try and get her son a place in school.

“The school applications open up in October [last year], so we applied then. We got rejection after rejection letter,” Catherine shared.

“In an autism class you have six [students] and [the children] might [progress through the school years], so they could be full from years ago. The kids could now be 10 and they won’t have an opening until the kids all leave to go to secondary school.”

Catherine added: “It came to last May in our house and we still had no place for Darragh. We weren’t able to apply to any more schools because the Department [of Education] hadn’t sanctioned any more classes.”

One of the schools they had applied to was later sanctioned to open an additional classroom.

Catherine shared: “We applied for that and got it, but it won’t open until [the school gets a prefab].”

She added: “In the meantime, we still had no place and we were offered home tuition, which would mean that Darragh was at home.

“That would be really hard for me because me and my husband [work] and a parent has to be there to supervise.

“We went back to the school that Darragh did his early intervention in and begged them if they would take him on the basis that [he’s going to be leaving].

“They have kindly agreed to that, but I shouldn’t have to be begging and be so grateful to the Department for Darragh to have a place – and that’s me being honest.”

She is calling for a central application system, similar to how college and university applications are carried out via the CAO.

“The information and the technology is there to do it”, she explained.