A nine-week protest by parents of children with severe physical and mental disabilities will be "seriously stepped up" this week, the parent's group has warned.
The St Vincent's Parents' Support Group will meet legal representatives this week to consider taking a legal case to improve services offered to more than 30 children in the St Vincent's Developmental Education Centre on the Navan Road, Dublin.
Parents are worried at the heavy loss of nursing staff and believe the Department of Education has pursued a policy of replacing mental handicap nurses with teachers. They say this is a misinterpretation of the O'Donoghue ruling, which stated that all children were entitled to an "appropriate" education. It is not appropriate for education to be introduced at the expense of the medical and nursing needs of the children, according to Mr Seamus Cowman, group spokesman.
