Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Eireann" and substitute the following:

"notes that:

— a child's right to education is enshrined in the Constitution and, under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), must be accessible on an equal basis with others in the community in which they live; and

— the Government is committed to ensuring that each child and young person with a special educational need has an appropriate school place, in line with their Constitutional right and Programme for Government commitments;

notes that the Government will:

— progress work on the development of a more inclusive education system for children with special education needs by supporting them to attend their local school;

— continue to expand the number of special school places, special classes and special education teaching hours as required across the State;

— improve communication and outreach to parents of children with special educational needs to streamline the process by which parents apply for specialist school places, reducing the burden on them and improving the timelines, including the introduction of a common application procedure;

— continue to increase investment into the area of special education to ensure that every child can reach their full potential;

— support additional schools and students to benefit from the Summer Programme 2025;

— ensure that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) will continue to engage intensively with parents and all educational partners to continue to increase capacity;

— ensure that available capacity across schools is maximised to make provision for children with special education needs; and

— prioritise school building projects delivering additional capacity for special classes and at special schools; and

further notes:

— the continued significant State investment of €2.9 billion in supporting the provision of special education, a 48 per cent increase since 2020;

— 97 per cent of all children and young people enrolled in schools, including the majority of children and young people with special educational needs, are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers;

— the significant increases in the allocation of Special Education Teachers (SETs) and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to support children with special educational needs in our schools which facilitates them in prioritising the allocation of all of these resources to children with the greatest level of need, including the completion of all SNA reviews and appeals for September 2025, there are now over 23,000 SNAs in our schools, an increase of 43 per cent since 2020;

— there are almost 21,000 SETs working in our schools whose sole role is to support children and young people with special educational needs, this is a 23 per cent increase since 2020, approximately 15,000 of these SETs support children and young people in mainstream classes, supplementing the work of mainstream teachers;

— the strategic initiatives introduced to provide for the continued, accelerated delivery of special class places in mainstream schools and special school places, the number of special classes has doubled over the last 5 years to over 3,700 and 16 new special schools have been established;

— 407 new special classes have been sanctioned for the 2025/26 school year and over 300 new special school places are being provided, including over 100 places in five new special schools opening presently;

— over 3,700 special classes have been made available across the country for the 2025/26 school year, ensuring that children can continue to access a special class in their local area avoiding the need for long distance travel;

— the commitment to prioritise investment in special education and school places as part of €7.55 billion in National Development Plan (NDP) capital funding for 2026-2030;

— the Minister of State at the Department of Education with special responsibility for Special Education and Inclusion and the NCSE have used statutory powers to compel one primary school in County Kildare to open two new special classes and the NCSE initiated S67 proceedings against a number of schools to ensure that children and young people with special educational needs were enrolled;

— confirmation from the NCSE that all, bar a very small handful of children in Dublin, known to them by the mid-February cut-off point, have been placed for this school year and that there are available special class places for these children and young people;

— the progress being made by the Department of Education and Youth and the NCSE in introducing new measures to support improved forward planning for the 2026/27 school year which brings forward the date of notification and will see the majority of new special classes sanctioned by 31st December, 2025;

— the streamlining of funding to ensure schools can access funding for repurposing accommodation;

— the significant investment in the expansion of staffing at the NCSE to assist families of children with special educational needs in all aspects of their educational journey, including accessing a placement appropriate to their needs;

— a new Education Therapy Service is being established which will commence initially in special schools and subsequently extend to schools with special classes and mainstream provision, it is intended that the service will be rolled out on a phased basis in some special schools at a later stage in the 2025/26 school year, with a wider roll-out for the 2026/27 school year, it is expected that recruitment of therapists for this service will be initiated in Q4 2025;

— the continued expansion of the Summer Programme, which has seen a 52 per cent increase in school participation since 2022, with over 1,900 schools taking part in 2025, and the introduction of the hot schools meals programme this year to support schools;

— the extensive review by the Department of Education and Youth of the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act 2004, which was published during the summer and the work underway to implement recommendations;

— ongoing work on the first SNA Workforce Development Plan by the Department of Education and Youth, which recognises the essential role played by SNAs in our school, which is engaging with SNAs, schools, unions and other stakeholders, and which is underpinned by a new national training programme for SNAs delivered by Atlantic Technological University costing €1.9 million;

— the work underway on the SNA Redeployment scheme which for the first time, will allow SNAs in posts which may no longer be required for reasons such as falling enrolments, reduced care needs or changing demographics, to be redeployed to a school which has a vacant/new post;

— the significant level of funding and supports being provided to schools to deliver accommodation for special classes, including school building projects, the repurposing of available rooms, and the provision of modular accommodation;

— the new pilot single application system for admission to post-primary schools, including admission to post-primary special classes, being rolled out by the Department of Education and Youth this year across five areas; and

— the renewed focus of the Government on the area of disability services, with a particular focus on improving the delivery of services for children with disabilities.".

I welcome the opportunity to address the House this evening to provide an update on special education provision which is a topic of particular importance to children and young people with additional needs and their families who seek appropriate school places each year.

Since taking up my position in January of this year as Minister of State for special education and inclusion, I have met with many families and advocacy groups who have raised concerns regarding the provision of special classes and special school places. I share their desire for us to do better and I will continue to meet with them and listen to the concerns. The key issue we are here to discuss is the provision of special education and special school places. I will focus on the provision of places for the start of this school year and I will then touch on the forward planning work under way for the next school year, 2026-27, and beyond.

Since we took up our new roles earlier this year, both Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy McEntee, and I have had a weekly meeting with the chief executive of the NCSE and senior departmental officials to track the progress in providing new special education places for this school year. The provision of these new places has been my number one priority over the past number of months.

I sincerely understand the challenges parents are facing in securing a special class or special school place. Parents of children and young people with additional needs should know where their son or daughter will be attending school at the same time as other parents. This is something I am committed to working towards with the Department and the NCSE.

It is important to remember that the vast majority of children with additional needs continue to be supported to access mainstream classes with their peers. These students are supported by their classroom teachers and can access additional special education teaching and SNA supports if required. At the start of this school year, we have over 23,000 SNAs and almost 21,000 special education teachers working within our schools whose sole role is to support children and young people with additional needs. Notwithstanding this, there will always be a place for specialised placements. For children with more complex needs a special class is provided and for those with the most complex needs a special school place must be provided. At the start of this school year, over 20,500 students with more complex needs will be enrolled in special classes and in special schools. That is an increase of 67% in the past five years.

The accelerated delivery of additional special education places by the Department and the NCSE, working closely with the schools, is providing 400 new special classes and over 300 new special school places annually. This equates to 2,700 new special class and special school places being provided each year across the country. The Department and the NCSE are forward planning to provide the same level of additional capacity for the next school year as well. Deputies are well aware that my Department and the NCSE constantly review the measures being taken to support the forward planning of this provision. Following this ongoing review, a new parents notification process was introduced by the NCSE ahead of this school year. This was to address a significant issue where new special classes were being opened and, in some cases, were being filled by children who were not previously known to the NCSE. I sincerely thank parents and families for their co-operation with this new process.

The NCSE reported that almost 3,300 verified notifications for children and young people seeking a special class or special school places for this school year were received by the mid-February of this year. Through the provision of over 2,700 new places and the availability of another 1,200 or so places through the normal movement of students, almost 4,000 places were available. Therefore, sufficient capacity was available to meet the needs of the almost 3,300 children known to the NCSE by the mid-February timeline, and indeed many children coming forward after this timeline. It is important to clearly state that the NCSE will always work to support families coming forward after the cut-off timeline for the parents’ notification process. This was the case last year and it will be the same for the upcoming 1 October cut-off point for notifications this year. We have brought forward the deadline to October this year so we are in a better position into the next school year. We hope to be in a position to offer the places available and that children are offered places before the end of this year for next year, to avoid all the stress and anxiety for families and children going into the school year. This is a commitment we have given and we are working very hard towards it. A total of 407 new special classes have been sanctioned by the Department and the NCSE for this school year, with new special classes in each and every county. Of these,103 are new special classes being established across schools in Dublin. This is the single largest annual increase in special class provision in Dublin. Well over 300 new special school places are being provided. Approximately 150 of these are being provided in Dublin and 75 in Cork. Again, these are the highest annual increases in special school places in both counties.

I am happy that after extensive work, five new special schools are opening, providing over 100 new special school places. These new special schools are opening in Nenagh, Castleblayney, the northside of Cork city, and Belmayne and Lucan in County Dublin. These new special schools are in addition to the 11 new special schools opened in recent years. This will bring the number of new special schools opened in Dublin to six and the number of new special schools opened in Cork to four since 2019. The new special school in Castleblayney is the first special school to be located in County Monaghan. I thank the local education and training boards for taking on the role of school patron for these new special schools.

We also acknowledge the various project management teams and contractors who have worked night and day over recent months to get these new special schools ready. While I have provided details on the additional capacity, the NCSE reports that all children seeking a special class or special school place outside Dublin, and the vast majority of those in Dublin, known to them by mid-February 2025 have been offered school places.

In the past two weeks, the NCSE has been supporting a very small number of children - and I mean in the single digits - to access available special class places in Dublin. Decisions on whether families access these places are a matter for families and individuals, but regardless, the NCSE and the Department will continue to work with this small number of families to support them and the children to access places.

While children being enrolled in these new special classes and places is positive news, I am aware that some children have had a delayed start to their school year due to the completion of necessary building work and I am quite aware of the anxiety and challenges caused because of that. I assure the families of these children that these works are being advanced as quickly as possible and that we are checking in several times weekly to see their progress.

Well over 80% of new special classes for this school year are being provided in existing school accommodation. The NCSE has worked closely with schools that are waiting for modular accommodation to provide special classrooms to put in place contingency arrangements. Teachers and SNAs have been allocated and recruited by these schools and are available to support students. In many cases, students enrolling in new special classes are already attending mainstream classes in the school and can continue to do so. Some schools are using alternative accommodation within the school temporarily, and with the assistance of other schools.

We are forward planning, as I said. We brought forward the date this year to 1 October so we will know what the need is earlier in the year. We will know the figures and I can confirm to the House that the Department and the NCSE have met patron bodies in recent weeks. Throughout the summer, we have been putting building blocks in place to make sure that after 1 October when we know the need and locations of the need, we will engage with school authorities to open special classes and know the need for special schools.

The Government is committed to opening additional special schools to ensure there is capacity. I have put everything I have into this job since I was appointed in January this year and I assure the House and the parents who are here that I know the struggle they are facing. I understand it 100%. The Department and the NCSE will work day and night to make sure the challenges being faced by children with additional needs are met forthwith. We have an awful lot of work to do. We have achieved an awful lot in recent months. We have it down to single digits at the moment. We have an awful lot of work to do and we will continue to do it to make sure the system we have in place from 1 October onwards brings certainty earlier in the calendar year, that we can start any building works earlier-----

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