Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It gives me the opportunity to set out for the House the position with regard to school places including special education in north Kildare for September 2024 and onwards.

I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post-primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for the Department of Education and the Government.

The Department has invested significantly in schools in County Kildare over recent years. Under the national development plan, a total of almost €250 million has been invested in schools in County Kildare over the past five years. This investment has focused on provision of additional capacity to cater for its increasing population and there are further significant projects in our pipeline including for the north Kildare area. In line with the Department's demographic projections of post-primary school place requirements, there has been a continued growth in enrolments throughout many school planning areas in North Kildare.

In response, the Department is progressing a number of building projects in north Kildare under the national development plan. This includes projects at primary and post-primary schools and provision for mainstream accommodation as well as for children with special educational needs. These projects include recently completed new school buildings for Maynooth Community College, Maynooth Post Primary School, Naas Community College and Maynooth Educate Together National School. Additionally, a number of further new school buildings and extensions are at construction or planned, including: St. Farnan’s Post Primary School, Prosperous; Scoil Dara and Scoil Uí Riada, Kilcock; Maynooth Boys National School; Celbridge Community School; Scoil Naomh Padraig, Celbridge; St. Raphael’s Special School, Celbridge; Leixlip Educate Together National School; Gaelscoil Ruairí, Maynooth; Mercy Convent Primary School, Naas; Hewetson National School, Clane; and St. Patrick's Boys National School, Clane.

The Department is aware of pressure for school places in north Kildare. As part of planning for September 2024, data on applications for admission has been received by the Department from post-primary schools across areas of known enrolment pressure, including the school planning areas of Maynooth, Naas, Celbridge, Newbridge, Kildare, Prosperous and Clane. The sharing of this data has been very effective in the identification of school place requirements across the areas. In the majority of areas across Kildare, through the work of schools, patrons, management bodies and the Department, there are sufficient school places available to meet the needs of children in the area. The Department is working with schools and patrons to make additional places available in a small number of areas where a need has been identified. As part of this engagement with patrons, the Department is also collaboratively planning towards 2025-26 and future years, as part of forward planning generally.

I also wish to acknowledge the invaluable work being done by school principals and wider school authorities in expanding the educational provision for pupils with special educational needs. The Department has close engagement with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, which has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide. The NCSE is working actively with the Department and other key stakeholders, including school patrons and management bodies, to provide additional special classes and special school places for the 2024-25 school year, including across north Kildare.

The Deputy will be aware that a new special school is being established in Kildare for the 2024-25 school year, under the patronage of Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board. It will provide additional special school places to meet the needs of families in the area. With respect to special classes, I can assure the Deputy that the Department is working to ensure that there is appropriate provision in place to meet the school place needs of all children. In the first instance, it is focused on ensuring that the use of existing school accommodation capacity is fully optimised. Where additional capacity is required, this can be provided by means of modular accommodation where accelerated delivery is required or by means of traditional construction projects. The Department will continue to plan for future school place needs using most up-to-date information, including child benefit data, enrolments, census data and information on current and planned residential development activity.

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