(Ireland) Cork: Autistic 5y-o left in preschool because there's no place for him

Mar 5, 2025, Cork Beo:  'Liam has no voice, so I have to speak for him' - Cork mum fighting to find school for son with autism

https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/liam-no-voice-speak-him-31137572.amp 

A Cork mum has opened up on 'losing sleep' and being 'consumed' by worries for her son's future in her fight to get him the education he deserves.

Leah O'Flaherty from Carrigaline will be one of the many parents attending the rally for children 'locked out of education' this Saturday, starting outside Cork City Hall at 2pm. Her son Liam has Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and moderate intellectual disabilities, and has already been refused entry to every single special school in Cork city and county for the coming academic year.

Now, he has nowhere to start Junior Infants this September and Leah says she's 'losing sleep' worrying for her son's future. She fears she may have no choice but to give up her job and become a full-time carer soon.

Liam was diagnosed with ASD when he was three years old and has spent the last two years studying at the Sonas Special School in Carrigaline. He has previously attended a public school, but Leah said the experience was 'very stressful' for him as it was the 'complete wrong environment for him to learn in.'

Organisers for this weekend's protest say that across Cork city and county, around 32 kids so far have no school place for this coming September. Speaking to CorkBeo, Leah said she "can't understand" why there is such a shortage of facilities as government "knew about their children's additional needs for years."

She said: "If a school from Midleton rang me tomorrow and said they have a place for Liam, I'd take it right away. I'd have to, even though I'd live in Carrigaline. I'd sort out how I was going to get there every day later. It's so demeaning, degrading for all of us, to have that lack of choice. I don't have a say in anything to do with my son's education.

"All schools require different diagnoses to apply, have different application windows. To spend all this time looking for something and to get nowhere, it's so bureaucratic and doesn't make any sense to me. Surely government know for years in advance about the up and coming kids with additional needs."

If he has no other options, Liam will thankfully be able to spend the 2025/2026 school year in Sonas in Carrigaline, meaning Leah will have one more chance to find him a Junior Infants class next year. She fears however that the situation won't change and that holding her son back in pre-school is both impacting his social development.

Leah recognises that many parents across Ireland are facing similar struggles, if not worse. Now, she's calling for families across the Rebel County to join her in at the Cork city rally to raise awareness of the 'critical' lack of facilities for children with additional needs nationwide.

She said: "Liam is pre-verbal. He literally has no voice in this, so I have to speak up for him. Every child has a right to go to school. Parents of kids with additional needs already go through enough with having to fight to get education for children."

On Monday night next, Sinn Féin councillors will highlight lack of special education provision at the regular Cork City Council meeting.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin councillor for the North West ward, Michelle Gould, has also called on the public to take a stand at this weekend's rally.

She said: "I have been in contact with parents who travelled to Dublin last Friday to campaign outside the Department for Education for school places for their children.

"The parents are understandably angry and frustrated that in 2025 their children have no school places. "Every child has a right to an education, but it seems in this country children with additional needs are being denied their rights; both in education and in accessing assessments of need.

"Once and for all, the government must guarantee every child a school place and the supports that they need.

"Parents have organised a rally for this Saturday, 8th March at 2pm outside Cork City Hall and I would encourage everyone to come along and show your support as once again the most vulnerable are being left behind."