Mr. Hubert Loftus:

We work closely with schools, school authorities and delivery partners. In 2022, we invested in the order of €100 million in delivering an accelerated delivery especially in the area of special needs. That helped to ensure that appropriate special classes were provided for approximately than 900-plus students, be it in special classes or as part of special school provision generally. The work we have been doing in the past couple of years is very much in the frame of supporting delivery, project management supports and supporting schools. Project management supports have helped to alleviate some of the burden that can be placed upon a school authority.

In fairness, some schools find that there are particular planning issues and so on that impact on delivery as well. That has to be managed and worked through. However, particularly during the Covid period, we engaged with our colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government Heritage to expand the range of exemptions in place from a planning perspective to aid delivery on existing school sites. We saw that as important and valuable in supporting delivery.