Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy raising the issue. I will deal with the specific issues he has raised in respect of Scoil Eoin. I thank the Deputy for the question and for the opportunity to outline how the Department and the NCSE continue to support children with additional needs. I want to stress that enabling students with additional needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is an ongoing priority for this Government, myself and the Department of Education. In 2025, the Department will spend more than €2.9 billion on special education, which is more than a quarter of the entire education budget.

This funding has greatly boosted the numbers of special classes, special education teachers and special needs assistants.

In relation to the school referred to by the Deputy, I can confirm that the Department received an application in 2021 under the additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme. The application was for funding for the provision of three special education classrooms.

The Department's school building technical team carried out an in-depth review of the school site in 2021. The review confirmed that the school and the site are at maximum capacity and that it would not be possible to provide the required accommodation on site unless a vast amount of existing accommodation was demolished and replaced with two-storey accommodation, as the Deputy outlined in his opening remarks.

At that time, considering all the relevant impediments to delivering the accommodation and the site constraints, the Department was not in a position to provide funding for the significant demolition of the school building. In light of this, officials in the Department contacted the NCSE to advise it of same and to establish the special classes in other schools in the area. Subsequently, funding was approved under the ASA scheme in June 2022 for the replacement of prefabs on site with one modular unit.

Specifically in relation to the Deputy's request, I understand he has been engaging with the school authorities on this for quite some time and that it is something the Deputy feels strongly about. I am led to believe that there was some further engagement in this regard but I am quite happy to engage, through the Deputy, with the school to see is there anything further that we can do in relation to this. I am not giving any commitments but I would certainly engage with the Deputy and the school authorities to see is there a way forward.

See this speech in context