Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I am very disappointed with that reply. I did not seek to raise this issue in a particularly political way. The matter needs to be resolved. There is no educational justification for closing down the special needs classes. The justification at the time was financial. It was announced in February in the aftermath of budgetary decisions that were made. The saving at the time was estimated to be approximately €7 million. It is probably considerably less than that now given that some of the schools have made some arrangements and we are down largely to the number of schools that have appealed the decision. What strikes me about the list of schools that have been refused is where they are located. They are virtually all located in disadvantaged areas, including parts of Tallaght, Ballyfermot and Edenmore.

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