Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue because it is very important and one I am determined to deal with in the short term. I want to ensure there is a proper system in the years to come whereby parents will know in the previous academic year where their child will attend second level for the subsequent academic year. Parents are going through too much in terms of endeavouring to find a school place or navigating the therapy support services that children require.

I will deal with the school places issue. First, the population growth in the number of children with special needs is significant. Funding has significantly increased. The number of additional places, teachers and SNAs has increased dramatically. That is no comfort or consolation to those parents who do not have a place or access to services, but it needs to be said.

We have established about 11 new special schools since 2020. This is the first Government in a long time that began to establish new special schools. There had been moves against special schools for ideological reasons and people felt that perhaps mainstream schools were more appropriate, but that stopped in the past couple of years. This coming school year, five more special schools will open.

I have spoken to the NCSE and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, who has also been in touch with the ETB and the NCSE. There are problems in north and south Dublin and Cork county. There may be other problems outside of those areas, but there are particular issues in those locations. Suffice to say, we will have to increase the number of special schools and special classes.

There will be 400 extra special classes coming on board in the school year 2025-26. Some 218 have already been sanctioned in the past week alone and more will follow imminently. Staffing has increased by 27% since 2020. There are now 23,400 special needs assistants. There is no freeze on the recruitment of SNAs. There has been an increase of 32% in the number of SNAs since 2020. We have 20,800 special education teachers, an increase since 2020. I acknowledge that is poor consolation to those who do not have a school place. We will work flat out to ensure we do everything we possibly can to create spaces and new special schools between now and the end of this academic year to prepare for children coming in next September. No effort will be spared in securing places for children for whom places have not currently been identified.

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