Parents of autistic children have gathered outside Leinster House in the latest protest to draw attention to the shortage of school places for children with additional needs.
Part of a national grassroots campaigning group called Equality in Education, they plan to sleep at the gates of the building tonight as part of their protest.
The group says it represents 200 parents of children with additional needs and that they are demanding immediate and effective measures to address the gaps in support for children and their families, as well as transparency and accountability in the allocation of resources to special education.
"The group has grown organically from parents who are desperate to fight for their children's rights and who feel they are not being listened to or being taken seriously," one of the organisers, Rebecca Meehan from Waterford, said.
Minister for Education Helen McEntee and Minister of State for Special Education Michael Moynihan have said they are committed to providing up to 400 new special classes and 300 additional special school places, comprising a total of 2,700 placements for the coming school year
They say 369 of these classes have already been sanctioned by the National Council for Special Education.
However, parents at the protest were not reassured.
"Sanctioning classes is one thing, actually delivering the classes is another and until that is done, I don’t think any parent standing here has any faith in what is being said," Danielle Cleary said.
"There is plenty of classes that have been sanctioned but they are not actually available for children to walk into in September and that is the problem we have. We do not want to be sitting at kitchen tables with our children come September, they deserve better," Ms Meehan added.
Both women had travelled up from Waterford with a group of other parents of autistic children, among them Roisín O’Donoghue.
"Parents like me we are applying to every possible space, however every possible space is inundated with applicants. There just aren’t enough spaces," she said.
Lisa Storey attended the protest with her son Sam, who will turn six this year. Amid the din of the protest, Sam was content with his noise cancelling headphones firmly in place.
Ms Storey said she had applied to around 30 schools for Sam and received 30 refusals.
"It is actually disgraceful. It really is," she said.
Germaine and Alan Colgan had come in from the Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown to join the protest on behalf of their son Daniel.
"According to the NCSE and the Department of Education Daniel has a school place, but he doesn’t," Ms Colgan said.
She explained how Daniel has been offered a place in a special school in Dublin 15, Danu, but the school needs to expand to provide those additional places and she said there is absolutely no sign of that expansion taking place as yet.
Gesturing through the railings towards Leinster House, Mr Colgan said: "Every week they are standing up in that building promising school places for children, but they are not following through on it. They are ticking off a box, but in reality, it’s not happening."
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