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

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. She had been raising the issue for quite some time previously on the floor of the House in respect of special needs education more generally, but here she is specifically referencing Offaly School of Special Education. She referred to the most recent pilot scheme, which was announced last summer, in respect of 11 special schools across the country.

As I said earlier in reply to questions on special education, the overall objective of the Government is to ensure that every parent will know well in advance that there is a school place for his or her child for the following September. I also outlined the exponential growth in the number of SNAs and special teachers. That number will continue to grow. It has grown and will grow this year. There is no specific cap on any school. The Deputy is correct that allocation should be on the basis of need, but there is a general guideline and framework by which the NCSE works.

The pilot scheme has not worked. It was initiated with a view to having an impact from September of the 2024-25 school year. Ideally, the HSE was to have provided therapists for approximately 11 special schools to see how it would work. That has happened in some schools but has not happened in others. What we have had is an alignment of therapists with schools but they are not actually in situ working in the schools.

I convened a meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on disability and a decision has been taken to set up a national therapy education programme. We will be recruiting and employing, through the NCSE, therapists to work in the 124 special schools across the country. We have to do that on a phased basis but we want to have it in place by next September or commencing next September. The Minister for Education, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State for special education, Deputy Michael Moynihan, are working up proposals to bring back to the Government as to how the scheme will work, with a view to having it commence in September of this year for the 2025-26 school year.

I am of the view, and have been for quite some time, that we need multidisciplinary teams, starting in special schools. We were frustrated over the past two years in getting that over the line. The pilot was a response to that but the pilot has not worked. I made it clear during the general election that I wanted this to happen. I made it clear that it had to go into the programme for Government. I have made it clear to all officials in all departments in the HSE that this is going to happen. It is a Government commitment and we are going do it. We will evaluate over time in terms of further expansion.

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