Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for the question. The Government is committed to the provision of additional special school places for children with more complex educational needs. Over 300 new special school places are being provided for in the coming school year, 2025-26. Five new special schools are being established in addition to 11 new special schools having opened over the past five years. Special school capacity is also being expanded in a number of special schools.

Along with providing additional special school capacity, the Department and the National Council for Special Education are considering that it may be necessary to look at the profile of our existing special schools. It is not the intention to exclude children who require special school places from accessing certain special school settings, but instead to work to ensure children with complex educational needs can apply to their own local school. The Deputy will agree that situations are arising where children with additional needs are travelling past special schools in their locality to attend special schools farther away. This is not fair on children or their families. This is down to the fact that children cannot apply for admission to their local special school simply because they do not meet the narrow designation of that specific school. This needs to be addressed and the Department is looking to engage with stakeholders in that regard. This is not a new departure. The National Council for Special Education reports that over half of these mild general learning disability special schools have been diversified, which means children with more complex needs can enrol in their local special school.

I thank the schools that have worked with us to broaden their designation. The Department will continue to support schools in this endeavour so that more special schools can better support children with complex needs in their local community. Approximately 30 of the 129 special schools were originally designated as schools for children with mild general learning disability. The establishment of these special schools predated the significant expansion of supports offered in mainstream schools through additional special education teachers and the resources of special needs assistants. I will come back in on that.

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