Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)

On Sunday, I was with students, staff and parents of Danu Community Special School in the Millennium Park because we have an annual walk, and I got chatting to them about some of the issues that are happening. Today, I was in St. Michael's special school in Chapelizod and there was more of a grilling from the students than any journalist would be proud of. It was a really important opportunity to hear from the students and parents.

I want to bring the Minister of State's attention to the anomalies and inequities for students and staff in special schools. We have 113 special schools and this is going to be relevant to pretty much every single one of those. They are faced with the challenge of staff recruitment. I will give the example of Danu Community Special School, which opened in September 2019. Only one SNA, one secretary and one principal remain. Staff turnover has been more than 95% since 2019. With the current teacher crisis, this is twofold for the school due to it being a Dublin school and a special school. The recruitment and retention of teachers who teach in special schools and special settings is in significant crisis. The school needs seven teachers for September 2025 out of an allocation of nine. That is what they are looking for for September, and that is along with all the other schools that are looking for teachers. There are a number of recommendations. They have sent or are planning to send this letter to the Minister of State, so I urge him to please get back to them in that regard.

The school is seeking a number of things, a couple of which Deputy Coppinger mentioned, such as an allowance and Montessori being allowed onto the teaching councils. They have a couple of solutions. The other issue they are talking about is a wraparound service with the Blanchardstown children's disability network team, CDNT, which they have at the moment. As was mentioned earlier, however, they are getting 12 new students. Thirty-eight of the students have a wraparound service with the CDNT. The school has not been given an assurance that the 12 new students who are hoping to start when these new Portakabins are provided in September will be included in that. They have been told they will not be included. It is inconceivable that 38 students would have a wraparound service and 12 new students would not. That absolutely needs to be addressed and those supports need to be given to them.

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