Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I acknowledge the Deputy's absolute commitment to supporting our special schools and supporting children with additional needs. Working with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, I was really pleased to have been able to secure additional funding in the budget. There was an anomaly there when students reached the age of 12 that they were not receiving the capitation funding that other students in mainstream schools were getting. It is important that was levelled and that anomaly was changed. The Minister of State and I are open to looking at further ways in which we can support our special schools and support the staff in the schools in particular.

Yesterday I was in Cara Community School, a new special school opened in my constituency with fantastic staff and teams there. We need to make sure that we are doing everything to support those teachers in what can often be a challenging but really rewarding and a really important school environment. I am very much open to looking at how we can support those working in the schools and whether there are changes or introductions of new posts or levels that we can provide that would take some of that pressure off and support those schools in different ways.

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