Mr. John Kearney:

I am delighted to meet the Senator. To clarify, there are a range of special educational needs, SEN, supports that we support the State in providing through our network of education facilities. First, there is the mainstream school, and the vast majority of students with special educational needs are accommodated within the context of a whole school. Then there is the special class, on which some of this discussion would have centred, and 315 of those will be opened this year. There is another degree of provision then called special schools, and there are in excess of 122 of them in the country, providing the much-needed targeted support to students and their families who avail of those schooling services.

I think what the Senator was referring to was the proposal that was mooted about four or five weeks to have special education centres.