June 26, 2019, Irish Sun: Labour senator calls for new autistic school units across Ireland as kids left with ‘no place for September’ https://www.thesun.ie/news/4261651/labour-senator-calls-for-new-autistic-school-units-across-ireland-as-kids-left-with-no-place-for-september/ LABOUR senator Aodhan O Riordain has backed calls to open new autistic school units around the country. The 42-year-old told how he has been dealing with parents unable to secure school places for next year. He was speaking after the Irish Sun revealed a desperate mum-of-three has gone on hunger strike outside the Dail in a bid to get her autistic son into a special-needs school. Nadine Staunton, 29, from North Kings Street, Dublin, says her lad Maddix has been refused from up to nine schools because he didn’t have an “assessment of needs test”. The north Dublin woman claimed her son was privately diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome but schools are still calling on her to get the autism test from the HSE, which has a waiting list of more than a year.... The single mum now fears her six-year-old son won’t have a school place in September, which he so desperately needs. Senator O Riordain told the Irish Sun: “Over the last number of months, I’ve been dealing with parents from the north side of Dublin who were finding it difficult for their children to get places in September....
