Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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In essence, when I was appointed to this position as the first dedicated Minister of State with responsibility for special education, it was clear and evident to me that we needed to tackle the dearth of special class places in particular pockets throughout the country.

I was delighted that I got a commitment from the school building unit to ensure that there will be sufficient accommodation for special classes in all new school builds into the future, which will help alleviate that problem, and that is in tandem with the NCSC forecasting model. It is developing a five-year plan, together with the forward model of the Department of Education, so that we can see and anticipate, from a demographic perspective, what and how many types of special classes we are going to need in the future. We can work with existing schools, but for all new builds there will be provision made for that accommodation.