Ms Martina Mannion:

I apologise. Our colleagues who were here earlier may have had some of that information. I will take that question and get back to the Deputy. One of the things we have tried to do in the circulars is to introduce a process whereby an exemption is not easily given and that two years of intensive engagement must be shown for this cohort of children who have multiple and persistent needs. It cannot be given to those below second class because we want to ensure children have every opportunity - half of a child's primary school life - to allow them access to all the planned interventions and strategies in order to see how they work. At a very minimum, the exemption cannot be introduced before that point. The idea is, as Mr. Ó hAiniféin and our colleagues mentioned, to give people every opportunity to access the Irish curriculum and Irish education as much as possible. It may be easier at primary level, in some contexts, as there are opportunities to engage with the language in other ways, such as singing and games.

In a post-primary context, we see the percentage has held stable, at between 9% and 10%. In addition to children with special educational needs, this includes the separate cohort of children who are coming from abroad. As was said earlier, some 6,000 children who came from abroad in 2022 are in this category. Not only does it include children coming from abroad but also the demographic change of children with special educational needs moving from a mainstream primary school to post-primary school, as well as the big growth in special education post-primary provision.

To give the Deputy some idea, in 2011-12 there were 68 post-primary autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes and there are now almost 700. There has been a very significant growth in supporting children with special educational needs at post-primary level. We in the Department and in the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, see that this is going to grow more significantly in the coming years as the demographics continue to move and as there is also that better understanding of special education, which is changing and evolving all the time. There will be more children in post-primary education both because of demographics and because of a greater understanding of special education.

Again, it might assist the committee to have some understanding of this. There were earlier talks about 2% of children being the total number of children that should be availing of this education. It was the case that our understanding of special education meant that the figures we were working off were 1% to 1.5% of children with autism; we are now talking about 3% to 3.5% of such children. On complex needs, the HSE understanding is that it was somewhere like 3%. It is now saying to us that it could be somewhere between 5% and 6%. When we look at that and understand that that is how we now appreciate special education, and recognise it not just in a diagnostic model but in a practical understanding, as Ms Tansey said, of this continuum of support, we see that there will be more children in special education in our post-primary system and schools.

That is very good because it means that those children are being supported, we recognise their need and we are putting the resources in to support them. It also means that we want them to be in mainstream education, even within special classes in mainstream education. Perhaps in earlier years, those children at post-primary level may have gone to special schools when they left primary level.

All of this points to a more inclusive education system and to us putting the resources in to support our children with special education at primary level, with a particular focus at the moment on post-primary education.