Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. Gabhaim buíochas arís le gach Teachta as scéal Scoil Eoin a ardú inniu. On behalf of the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, I will outline how the Department and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, continue to support children with special educational needs around the country and I will deal especially with the issues raised.

It is a priority to ensure that all children have an appropriate school placement and that the necessary supports are provided to our schools to cater to the needs of children with special educational needs. In 2024, €2.7 billion will be spent on special education, which is an increase of €113 million. Among other things, this will allow for the opening of up to 400 new special classes in mainstream schools and 300 additional special school places.

The NCSE has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on education provision for children with special educational needs nationwide. Over the past few years, the Department and the NCSE have introduced a number of strategic initiatives to plan for and provide sufficient mainstream, special class and special school places. These initiatives are bearing fruit, with over 1,300 new special classes sanctioned and seven new special schools established over the past four years. The Department engages intensely with the NCSE on the forward planning of new special classes and additional special school places. This forward planning work is well under way ahead of the 2024-25 school year.

Along with two new special schools opening this school year, 390 new special classes, which break down to 254 at primary and 136 at post-primary level, have been sanctioned by the NCSE for opening this school year. Of these, 76 are in Cork, 52 at primary level and 24 at post-primary level. This brings to 496 the number of special classes in County Cork, 351 at primary and 145 at post-primary level.

On Scoil Eoin, I can confirm, as the Deputies have outlined, that the Department received an application in 2021 under the additional schools accommodation, ASA, scheme for funding for the provision of three special education classrooms. The Department’s school building technical team carried out an in-depth review of the school site in 2021. The review confirmed that the school and the site are at maximum capacity and that it would not be possible to provide the required accommodation on site unless vast amounts of existing accommodation were to be demolished and replaced with two-storey accommodation. At that time, considering all the relevant impediments to delivering the brief of accommodation and the site constraints, the Department was not in a position to provide funding for the significant demolition of the school building. In light of this, the Department contacted the NCSE to advise it of this and to establish the special classes in other schools in the area.

In January 2024, the NCSE confirmed the need for special classes in the area. The NCSE and the Department are working to identify suitable locations for those classes to ensure that the children who require access to this provision can avail of it as soon as possible. Separately, the board of management of Scoil Eoin subsequently submitted a new engineer’s condition report to the Department in support of its proposal to knock down and rebuild a portion of the school building. The Department's technical team will review the contents of this report and officials from the Department will consult with the school authority on completion of this review. I know that Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan has arranged a meeting with the Minister, Deputy Foley, and there will be a chance to engage on this issue further directly with her then.

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