Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has said, we have a special Cabinet committee making sure health, education, disability and children are all working in relation to children with additional needs. Within my remit, one third of our education budget goes towards special education. For the coming school year, 400 special places are being allocated, of which 300 have already been allocated and the Department is working closely with the NCSE and the schools on the last 100. I will come back to the Deputy directly on that area. In my remit, I want to ramp up the resources for special education. Much good work is happening but we need to make sure the NCSE is being resourced and is working directly with schools to identity areas that need support.

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