When Mary Lou McDonald came to Monaghan Town on Friday past, she met with parents of children with special needs here. During an hour-long meeting between the leader of Sinn Féin and members of the Special Needs Active Parents campaign group they discussed the crisis in services for children with additional needs in the county.
For months now, parents have been campaigning for a special school, permanent respite centre for children and adults and a day centre for young adults after they leave school. The leader of Aontú, Peadar Tóibín, had met with SNAP earlier the same day.
The Sinn Féin leader said she would raise the need in Monaghan "directly" with the Minister for Education Norma Foley. And while she conceded a special school could not be produced "out of thin air" Mary Lou McDonald said "political will" could make it happen: "Just remember," Deputy McDonald said, "and we all know this from bring up our own children; they get to be three four, six and 11 once. They get to do this just once and so, the idea of just delaying this or fobbing these families off isn't acceptable. Of course, you can't produce a school out of thin air overnight, nobody has that expectation but, I see no reason why there wouldn't be an announcement , a firm commitment that the planning can't start now. The resources are there. What we need is the political will."
