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

Last year the Department gave a commitment that all new schools that are built will automatically have SEN facilities and-or a sensory room if they need it. We should not have this issue every year where we are scrambling to facilitate children with special needs. As I mentioned earlier, based on current and anticipated demand, we have a forecasting model in place. The planning and building unit is now sharing its geographical information system with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, so the NCSE can see building projects that are planned in each geographical area in real time. That was not done previously. The Deputy is right that we need to ensure we have adequate capacity five, ten, 15 and 20 years into the future. I am endeavouring to work on that daily.

See this speech in context