Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Taking Deputy Tully's questions first, the review I intend to conduct of the EPSEN Act will be a review of the legislation in its entirety, including the Parts that have been commenced. It is my view that section 2, which relates to inclusive education, still stands. It states:

A child with special educational needs shall be educated in an inclusive environment with children who do not have such needs unless the nature or degree of those needs of the child is such that to do so would be inconsistent with- (a) the best interests of the child as determined in accordance with any assessment carried out under this Act, or

(b) the effective provision of education for children with whom the child is to be educated.

That sums up the approach in regard to special education in general in a nutshell. I will be using it as the premise on which I conduct my review.

I understand Deputy Ó Laoghaire has tabled a later question specifically relating to the provision of SNAs. I will check out the bias to which he referred in regard to special needs provision for girls. On the allocation of SNAs, it is always open to schools to engage with the exceptional review process if they feel they have not received a sufficient allocation of SNAs. The numbers were frozen for this year and there was no impact because of Covid. I secured an allocation of €14.7 million in the budget to allow for the immediate replacement of an SNA who is absent for any reason.

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