Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and I have been meeting with the NCSE to make sure we are on top of the figures and understand where we are. As of yesterday, more than 92% of children have been allocated places or are in the process of that happening. Outside of Dublin, where there are still places to be allocated, there are pathways for every child. For example, in our county of Meath, there are no places to be allocated for primary or post-primary schools and, in terms of special school allocations, there are two but there are pathways for those two. We have an outline of all the counties and where there are larger numbers, there are clear pathways. The challenge we still have - I do not think anybody has denied this - is with Dublin. We have been working with the NCSE, which is engaging with all the schools. I thank it and acknowledge that a huge number of schools are taking on extra classrooms. Our special schools are expanding and providing greater levels of support than ever before but the need is greater than ever before. There is a huge body of work happening, looking at the need and making sure we have the required spaces and that they match up. Nobody wants children travelling for hours on end every day to get to school. Where schools have been sanctioned and have not opened, they are being spoken to and engaged with regularly to make sure that happens. Every new classroom has been sanctioned since the end of April so there is no reason any school should not have opened its allocation process. We are working closely with schools. I appreciate it is not straightforward for some but it is important we get this done as early as possible. We do not want to be here in September not knowing where children are going.

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