Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her comments. However difficult this has been for all of us, as public representatives, for the families of children with special needs it has been immeasurably more difficult and challenging for them. That is what motivates all of us, even everybody on this committee, so that we can be a voice for them.

I referred earlier to timelines and deadlines. What I can say about special schools, and obviously subject to the Cabinet making a decision on it later, it is likely that they will move to 100% in early March. That seems to be the indication but I add the caveat that it is a decision that the Cabinet must make.

On section 37A, we wrote to 39 schools last June and 14 of them were withdrawn on the basis that there was consideration of their representations, submissions and there were on-site inspections. Those 14 schools would not have been taken off the list unless there were very extenuating valid and exceptional reasons that they could not facilitate a special class. The schools often genuinely do not have the space, particularly in high-density areas. Ten schools remained and they have received a third notice that was issued on 14 December of last year.

Since the introduction of section 37, 21 additional special class cases have been confirmed and there is a potential for another 66 special class cases by September 2021. For the first time I secured a specific commitment from the building and planning unit of my Department, when I was recently appointed, concerning every new school. Sometimes I think that the significance of this has not got the attention that it should because it is a really big decision that the Department made, and the right decision. One might ask why was the decision not made before but at least it has been made. I secured that every school from now on will have special facilities and special education needs, SEN, rooms unless local circumstances dictate otherwise and that there is no need. That is a really big commitment because we want to get out of a situation where we are perennially trying to scramble for special class places. The forecasting model will help as well. As the Deputy will know, we announced the opening of Scoil Colm in Crumlin that will help towards the development of special schools as opposed to special classes. There have been a lot of positive developments but obviously we have a huge amount of work still left to do.