A woman whose son has autism applied to dozens of schools before her child was given a school place has described the process as “soul-destroying”. 

This year, hundreds of children with special needs could be denied a place in a special needs class, with demand far higher than the Government planned for. 

Speaking in the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said applications for places had “increased exponentially” and declined to guarantee all children would be offered a place. 

On The Claire Byrne Show, Amy Hennessy, whose four year old son is autistic and has global developmental delay, applied for places in 60 schools “all over Meath”.

 Ms Hennessy described the pressure on school places in their hometown of Dunshaughlin as “really bad”. 

“In the three schools, we have one ASD class across three schools and they only hold six pupils,” she explained. 

“So, in this one class, you could have children from junior infants up until sixth class. 

“So until somebody leaves that class in sixth class, there's no space.” 

A group of school children in school uniforms. Picture by: NorthScape / Alamy Stock Photo

Ms Hennessy added that being rejected so many times is "soul-destroying", especially as she feared her son would regress if educated in a mainstream class. 

“We pay nearly €1,100 a month on therapies,” she said. 

“He's thriving in preschool and to think that he would not have a space for a whole year could undo so much hard work that we've put in.”

“But my point was we've put in such hard work for two years and we see the difference in him. 

“To have no place for a whole year could undo all that work. I just couldn't imagine it.” 

Ms Hennessy’s son has now been offered a place in a school in Trim, which is a half hour drive away from where they live. 

The family is unsure how they are going to find the time to do the school run with three children in three different schools and hope their work will be flexible. 

“Me and my husband are going to have to both approach our jobs and look for our start times to now be pushed back further,” Ms Hennessy said. 

“I don't know if they're going to accommodate, but that's where we have to do that.”

Main image: A mother holding her son's hand. Picture by: Alamy.com.