Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I agree with the Deputy. I do not think that an assessment of need should be a barrier to receive extra support. It is not in terms of preschool, or from an access and inclusion model perspective, or from an SNA perspective. I certainly want to get to a point where it is not a requirement for a special class or a special school either. That makes sense and I agree with the Deputy on that. This is something I will undertake. I am undertaking to work with the Minister for Education to get to that point.

With regard to a special school in the Deputy's constituency, these decisions will be made based on the data available to the NCSE. They now have new data available as of 1 October. They will be using the time between now and the end of the year to ascertain where the need is greatest and make the decisions based purely on that. If the need is very big, as the Deputy has suggested, I am sure this will come out in the data.

I assure the Deputy that the NCSE will continue to support all children made known to them who require specialist support. It is important to remember that support comes in so many forms within our education system. The vast majority of students with special educational needs are supported to attend school in mainstream classes with their peers. Obviously, they get fantastic support from SNAs but it is also really important that we continue to grow the number of special school places and the number of special schools that exist. This is something the Government has done in the last year and is doing again this year. It is a huge part of our national development plan and infrastructure commitments going forward.

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