Ms Martina Mannion:

I thank the Chair. I could say the single biggest area of the Department that we engage with is the planning and building unit. We have a hugely collaborative relationship. Obviously, we are all colleagues working in the one Department. They have been strategic in working with us and ensuring this forward planning piece. We have enhanced arrangements using the geographic information system, GIS, system ensuring that we have buildings to meet the special educational needs. We have updated technical guidance for building projects to ensure that there is special education provision built into them.

We are future-proofing at post-primary level, ensuring there are four special classes in all new 1,000-pupil post-primary schools and it ispro ratafor other post-primary school numbers.

We have had strategic engagement at patron level on the special education need on all school sites, including post-primary schools in the fee-charging sector because in parts of Dublin the number of these exceeds the number of non-fee-charging post-primary schools. We have a modular accommodation framework put in place by the Department in early 2021 to ensure we can get additional special classes on site as needed. We have expansion of the existing planning exemptions, which allows us to increase our school sizes without planning permission. The bulk of those are being used to support children with special educational needs. We have expanded project management support for schools. This has been hugely beneficial this summer. It means there is project management identified which can work directly with the schools to avoid school principals having to do all the work required in getting modular accommodation on site. We have a simplified process for reconfiguration work in schools.

To give reassurance on delivery, between 2018 and 2022 nearly 900 school building projects were delivered. There will be €5 billion spent between 2021 and 2025 on school buildings. There are currently 300 projects at construction, including 40 new schools, at a cost of over €1 billion, and 72 projects at tender, for a further 27 new school buildings. Building in special education provision is key. The forward-planning work Mr. McLoughlin spoke about has been an intensive collaboration over the past two years between special education, the planning and building unit and the NCSE and it has delivered the 300 new special classes, the seven new special schools and our plan to continue at that pace of special education provision.