Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

The significant investment that has gone into special education in recent years has been with the sole purpose of making sure children have places and that when they are in school, whether it is in special schools, special education classrooms or mainstream classes, they have access to the support that is appropriate to them. That is why we have more than 23,000 SNAs and thousands of new special education teachers and why over 20,500 young people are being supported in special education classrooms separate to those in mainstream. It is really important to me that we are providing more places than are needed. That is what we have been focused on for this September. When I say that we have sanctioned 3,900 places, we have done so knowing that there are just under 3,300 young people who have a need.

It is about ensuring that we can match that.

Having sanctioned the classrooms, the real focus of the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and I is on working intensively with the NCSE. We are engaging with the schools and patrons on their enrolment policies and how we match the two. Where we have identified needs, schools have been sanctioned and enrolments are taking place, it is about ensuring all of it matches up so that, come September and well before that - in the next few weeks - people know where they are going, what supports they have and that we are already planning for next year, which we are.

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