Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I have followed what he said here very carefully.

I welcome the fact there is some forward planning happening under the National Council for Special Education. That is really important. On this forward planning, the Minister of State said works are under way for the 2024-2025 school year and there are 389 new special classes. In Laois, I have spoken to people in the second-level educational sector who deal in special education and who are running second-level schools, boards of management, staff, etc. According to the figures, there are 12 classes needed to catch up with the required number of students coming through this year. Ten, at a minimum, is what it looks like to me. That is the best figure I can put on it. While I welcome that, of these new ones that have been sanctioned, eight are in Laois. Four are at primary and four are at post-primary, but what I am saying to the Minister of State is there are another six to eight needed at second level.

There are 389 special classes sanctioned. I understand some of them will be at primary level and some of them will be at second level. If we say it is half and half, there are roughly nearly 200 if you were splitting them down the middle. Laois needs to get a fair slice of those. I accept every Deputy will be looking for them for his or her own area but I am saying, because of the rapid growth in population in Laois and because we are playing catch-up in terms of the provision of ASD units and ASD classes, it is very important. Government is playing catch-up with this. I would like to see the following schools looked at again: Portlaoise College, the CBS Portlaoise, Coláiste Íosagáin in Portarlington, Coláiste Dhún Másc, Heywood Community School in Ballinakill and Scoil Chríost Rí.

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