€1,800 a week for school taxi [clarechampion.ie]
- Published: 07 July 2011
THE Department of Education and Skills has been paying an estimated €1,800 a week to transport two West Clare teenagers with special needs by taxi to a school in Ennis because of the lack of a suitable educational facility in their locality.
Isabelle Sequin, 14, who has Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and epilepsy, up to the recent end of term had been completing a round trip of 130km three days a week, while her twin sister, Clara attended St Joseph’s Community College, Kilkee.
During the school year, Isabelle stays in an Enable Ireland house on Wednesday nights to try and reduce the impact on her condition of travelling from Carrigaholt to St Clare’s in Ennis. The same taxi collects a second pupil with ASD from Moyasta, while it is understood yet another pupil is picked up along the way to Ennis.
Isabelle’s father, Pat Gavin has hit out at the cost of transporting students from West Clare to Ennis and feels this money would be far better spent in providing a fully resourced special needs unit in Kilkee, which would mean teenagers with special needs would have the option of attending a local secondary school.
Full Story: www.clarechampion.ie
