Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)

I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss this matter despite the relevant Minister or Minister of State not being here. I ask that anything we discuss be relayed to the Minister and the NCSE. This is incredibly important to all concerned, to the school community, staff, parents and most of all to the children who will not be able to avail of SNA support because a review has indicated that they were not successful. I will run through some of the timeline and give context and emphasise some of the frustrations on everyone's behalf in relation to the process. This is a thriving school in a rural area in Meath. It was unsuccessful in an initial SNA exceptional review, which took place in February 2025. The school considered an appeal and subsequently decided to apply for a focused review as it was aware, as we would have been ourselves, of significant needs in the incoming junior infants class in September 2025. Parents and staff identified this additional need.

They were told in May that the NCSE was no longer accepting applications for reviews as guidance was changing and that is the piece we all would have been aware of. In August they were told they could reapply for an interim review for the incoming students who were not considered in the review back in February. The deadline for that application was 31 August and the school put in a very comprehensive application. Despite the guidelines stating that it would hear back within two weeks - this was at the end of August - it still had no word as recently as a couple of days ago.

The Minister, Deputy McEntee, a constituency colleague of mine, visited this school on 10 October. The school staff pursued it. I also pursued it and I am sure other elected representatives from across the political spectrum pursued it on behalf of the school. Just yesterday or the day before, two months on from the initial application, it received the letter from the NCSE saying that the review was unsuccessful. This was a devastating and demoralising.

As I said, I met staff and parents and many parents have contacted me in relation to this. Under any measure, this school is going above and beyond. It is doing everything it can to provide an inclusive education for children. Staff are stretching themselves at every measure and they have been hit with this. It is devastating for the whole school community, for the principal and for the special education co-ordinator. It factors in additional SNA support and it looks at the potential and the opportunity to work with that and then it is given this news. To add insult to injury, after waiting more than two months, the school is given three days to appeal. That is simply not good enough. There needs to be greater connection and greater understanding in relation to this.

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