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

I concur with the Deputy; it is extremely important. There is a particular focus on large urban areas where demand is highest. For example, we opened 94 new classes in Dublin; 65 in Cork; 23 in Limerick; and 24 in Meath. It is important to put into context that about 92% of the classes we have opened over the past three years have been for autistic children. The autistic prevalence rate we were using before was 1.55%. We now estimate that rate to be at least 3.11% and this is contributing to the increase in demand, apart from demographic increases and other matters like that. This is not to say that the NCSE should not support the demand. For this reason, we increased the funding for the NCSE by €13 million in last year's budget to allow for the hiring of an additional 160 staff, which will help in terms of extra special educational needs organisers, SENOs, and communication with schools and parents, in particular, so that they will know as soon as possible when their child will get an appropriate placement for the following year.

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