Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue which is top of the Government's priorities, namely, special needs in general and especially special needs education. I make the point special education now accounts for about 28% of the entire education budget. That is a 48% increase in four years since 2020. Staffing has grown 27%, with 23,400 special needs assistants now in our school system. That is not a story of pulling back, regression, cuts or anything like that, but one of expansion and growth and it will continue to grow. We now have 124 special schools serving 9,112 pupils. There have been 11 new ones opened since 2020, with five more opening in the academic year 2025-2026. The number of children attending special classes in mainstream schools has doubled over the past five years from just over 9,000 in 2019 to almost 19,000 in 2024, with 3,335 special classes now in place to support them. Up to 2,700 new special education placements are planned for 2025-2026. This includes 400 new special classes and 300 special school places. There have been 399 new special classes sanctioned to date and the remainder will follow. An additional 1,200 places are available due to student movement. We will provide up to 3,900 placements this year for about 3,275 seeking them. The aim is to get a place for every child. There have been issues in terms of geography and certain locations and so on, but no stone is being left unturned to get a place for every child this September, because it is a constitutional right of every child to enjoy an education.

It is the Government's obligation to vindicate that right. It is far better that resources are allocated to schools as opposed to the courts. That is always my objective and that of the Minister for Education, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister of State for special education, Deputy Michael Moynihan. We will continue to work on this matter at primary and post-primary levels and make sure we do everything we can. There are still some challenges in the Dublin area in the context of the speed of getting special classes constructed, planning constraints, etc., but we are working flat out. The Minister and Minister of State are doing so on the he special education front.

On assessments of need, we have developed and sanctioned the national in-school therapy programme. That is on the way. The decision has been taken. We will roll out a national system whereby we will have therapists starting in our special schools.

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