Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As for young people or children with complex needs, the Senator is correct that the data was not sufficient from the community healthcare organisation, CHO, areas so to compensate for that, we are now relying on school data. I want to be very clear on that. If a young person has such a complex need that they do not complete any of the school testing requirements, they are given maximum weighting under complex need. He or she does not have to complete the school assessment. Finally, the last aspect of it is the HP deprivation index.

We notified the schools very early, so they would have an opportunity to engage in the review. Heretofore, the review was mid-school and people received the result mid-school. We are in a position where we are saying the reviews will take place between March and May, and that has already commenced. Therefore schools will be notified well in advance of the September 2024 commencement. Equally, 67% of all schools either retained their allocation or improved their allocation. Some 23% of schools lost less than five hours and of those that lost less than five hours, 90% of cases were due to lesser numbers in schools as a result of a drop in enrolments. That is another key factor.

Finally, as I know we are running out of time, with regard to the general terms of the SENOs, an additional €30 million was made available to the National Council for Special Education this year to increase its personnel and that included the SENOs. We had more than 1,000 SENO applications and we are increasing the number of SENOs from 73 to 120. We are also changing the jurisdictions. Heretofore, there were ten centres. There will now be 21 centres, all managed by an individual who will have oversight of the work of the SENOs. It is a new model of practice which will mean there will be more SENOs in the system and there will be almost, but not entirely, a county by county distribution of them.

With regard to school transport and the pilots, the world and its mother is interested in those pilots. There will be announcements shortly. The pilots are really trials. That is what we are talking about. It is a two-type trial. First, we will amalgamate school transport with public transport, so that would be for post-primary students because children under 12 could not travel on public buses. The second type of trial would look at the distance criteria. There will be an announcement initially on those two pilots but there may well be an opportunity later, towards the end of June or whenever, for additional types of pilots within the system as regards other recommendations.