Ms Martina Mannion:

I thank the Deputy. I will cover one or two of the points and hand over to colleagues for the others. On children travelling to special schools and classes and the provision of additional such classes and places, we have been conscious over recent years that there have not been enough classes and places. For the last two years we have been doing intensive engagement with the planning and building unit within the Department of Education and with the NCSE. The net result of that is we envisage we are going to continue to open the same level of special classes at primary level as we have over the last three years and we are going to need to double the special class provision at post-primary level over the next three years. We have opened, as I said, seven new special schools. The idea is that we will have a better geographic spread. Back in October, the Minister and the Department wrote to all post-primary schools to say they would all be required to take special classes in the coming years. The work we are doing is to ensure there is a good spread across the country, for the very reason we do not want people to have to travel. That gives a broad outline. We will start to see the opening of those new special classes across the country. So many new ones have opened for September 2022 and will again for September 2023.

On the SNA allocation, there will be almost 20,000 SNAs in our school system across the special schools and classes. The important thing with that is there is an exceptional review process. Mr. Hanlon might talk a little about how that is being managed in schools and how we have tried to streamline it. Mr. Doody might talk a little about how we support positive behaviours in schools and also the work we are doing on the restraint guidelines.