Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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First, I wish the Minister of State the very best in his role and congratulate him. It is a hugely important brief and out of all the Members I know across the Houses, he will take it on with sincerity and gusto. I wish him the very best of luck with it.

This evening, I am asking for an update regarding special ASD classes in County Louth, both at primary and secondary school level. I have many parents contacting me quite regularly, particularly in relation to second level schools. They are at their wits' end and are afraid their child will not have a school place come September.

I acknowledge that the previous Government doubled the special classes. It introduced 11 new special classes. As the Minister of State said in his speech in the previous debate, there are 400 new classes to be allocated for the school year of 2025.

I ask that County Louth will get some of those classes, in particular, for second level schools. I believe there are only six ASD classes at second level in Dundalk and with a population of over 40,000 people, when one looks at that, it is unsustainable.

It is a brief question. As the Minister of State well knows and has been thrashed out throughout this evening, parents are at their wits' end. They are incredibly worried.

Education is a right. It is supposed to be a special, wonderful time, particularly that transition between primary and secondary school where parents are looking towards the future, looking towards what schools they would pick for their child and what suits the child best. When you have no options, that is basically it; you have no options. You struggle to place your child in any class. It is a terrible time.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue.

Over the past four and a half years, we sat on the disability matters committee. I know the passion the Deputy brings to the issue of special education in Louth. In many of the discussions we had at that committee, she brought forward the challenges that are there, not only at primary school but post-primary as well and, indeed, in preschool and the AIM programme. In one of the long debates that we had in the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, the Deputy raised the correlating of information from the AIM programme onward to ensure that the education system was better prepared. We are doing that in the Department. I thank the Deputy for her commitment to special education and for the work she did on that committee and in Seanad Éireann, as well as the work that she continues to do, in relation to special education.

As the Deputy outlined in her contribution, a huge amount of money is being spent and 400 extra classes are being opened this year alone.

We need to look at some communities - the Deputy mentioned County Louth - and we will be working hard. Extra SENOs have been put in place and more people have been working to this end. We are far ahead of where we were this day 12 months ago in relation to providing special education places for children with additional needs but it is not good enough. We simply need to do better at both primary and post-primary levels. We need the information from very early on to make sure the State is properly empowered to make sure there are no gaps within the education system.

The Deputy mentioned post-primary education. It is one of the areas that we are having a particular difficulty with in some communities in respect of children who are leaving primary school but have nowhere to go come 1 September. As I mentioned in the previous debate, I met parents at school gates whose children were leaving primary school education in the last week of June and they did not know where they were taking up education the first week of September. I do not mind sharing with the House that as a public representative, I felt totally inadequate when meeting those parents on that day. In the role I have now, I will work as hard as I can to make sure that is not the plight of any parent or any children in my time in office.

The Deputy mentioned County Louth. The Department of Education, the NCSE and all the officials will work to ensure that places are provided, both at primary school and at post-primary, in a timely manner and that families are not completely stressed out for six, seven or eight months not knowing what will happen.

9 o’clock

We need to respect the children who have additional needs and we need to respect the families, parents and communities by having this done in a timely manner.

I will work with the Deputy regarding County Louth and specific schools, areas or even policies she would like to raise. I know she is passionate about this issue. She has always shown that when we have worked together in the past. If there are specific schools, communities or policies Deputy McGreehan would like to raise in terms of County Louth, I have no difficulty in meeting her and working my way through them.

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I very much appreciate the Minister of State's offer to initiate my policies. The script he provided states that there are 98 ASD classes in County Louth - 75 at primary level and 23 at post-primary level. There is a clear inequality. We must be focused on ensuring we have classes for our primary school students through to their transition into second level. As the Minister of State well knows, there are far too many parents in limbo. We must work tirelessly to increase the number of ASD classes from 23 to ensure that every child who is in sixth class now has a school place in September.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Education, together with the NCSE, has been working with parents, schools, patron bodies and other stakeholders in County Louth and across the country to provide sufficient special education placements for children with special needs, in this case in the Louth area. By the end of this year, the number of special classes available nationally in mainstream schools will have doubled from 1,800 to more than 3,700 for the 2025-26 school year. This includes 400 classes the NCSE will sanction for this September.

Of the 409 new special classes sanctioned by the NCSE for the current year, 289 are at primary level and 120 are at post-primary level. Of the new special classes sanctioned for the 2024-25 school year, 16 are in County Louth - 13 at primary level and three at post-primary level. That brings us to the nub of the point that the Deputy wants to make, namely, that there be a focus on the post-primary level. I will take that request back. The total number of special classes in County Louth is 98 - 75 at primary level and 23 at post-primary level. I take the point made by the Deputy and we will work with her and the communities in County Louth to make sure we address any shortfalls.