Ms Bernie McNally:

I will start and then call in Ms Mannion. We recognise what the Deputy is saying, and that is why the National Council for Special Education received an increase of 50% in its funding. It will go from 73 special education needs organisers to 120 by this August. Many of them are being placed this month, but some will come in August. We recognise that families need support and should not have to apply to lots of different schools, so the NCSE has a role in legislation to reach out to families and help them access a school place. We are doing a huge amount.

On post-primary, we wrote to principals in post-primary schools in October 2022 to say we were planning for every post-primary school to have four special classes. We wanted to write to them proactively to say this is coming. This is what we are doing, and we are in the process of arranging for that to happen.