Ms Martina Mannion:

In addition to the new special classes the Deputy talked about in the area, there will be 30 new special classes across Dublin for September 2024. That is in addition to the 71 new special classes we put in last year. Some 23 of those special classes were at post-primary level across Dublin.

The Deputy mentioned forward planning. The special education unit, the planning and building unit and the NCSE spent an extensive amount of time on forward planning. We took a strategic look at where children at post-primary were coming from. In looking at that, we found that approximately one third were coming from special classes at primary, one third were coming from mainstream primary and one third were coming from within the post-primary system. The other thing we looked at with the NCSE was not just school planning area by county and then bringing it up to the national level. The bulk of children going into special classes are eight or nine years of age. We need to continue massively delivering special classes at primary level. The bulk of children coming into special classes at post-primary will be coming in the next number of years. Mr. Loftus and I work intensively every week to ensure we have that forward planning place available, so we have had more than 100%-----