David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Are the Deputies splitting their time?

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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Yes.

Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue matter this morning. This is about a badly-needed special school in our area so that those with additional needs can get the education they deserve. It is also about the needs of Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School. The school has very a committed principal and staff who are trying to achieve the very best for their students. Our time is short and I do not want to pit one school against another. That is not what this is about. This is about finding a compromise solution so that the special school gets under way as soon as possible and the secondary school can plan for its facilities as its enrolment numbers continue to grow.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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It makes absolutely no sense at all to accommodate a much-needed special school in Belmayne in prefabs, next door to brand-new classrooms that are not yet in use and that were specifically designed for students with additional needs. Why should children with additional needs be accommodated in prefabs in substandard conditions when a much better option is available? There is a site available in the local area for a permanent special school. It is important that this building is prioritised and that, in the meantime, the school is accommodated temporarily in the new classrooms in Belmayne Educate Together. Will the Minister of State give a commitment that he will not proceed with the use of prefabs and will instead use the brand-new classrooms available?

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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I want to be very clear; we need a special school. We have all been contacted by parents who are having to fight for their children to get appropriate places, and I want to make it very clear that we are all on the same page. The compromise solution put forward by Belmayne Educate Together, which will see a special school housed temporarily in its permanent building, makes sense. Nobody wants to see a special school going in to prefabs. This school can house this special school temporarily in a permanent building while it awaits its new build. We need an explanation as to why this compromise, which is very fair, has been rejected by the Department.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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It is great to see a united party effort on this issue. We all attended the information evening in Belmayne. It is very clear we need another special school in Dublin Bay North. The issue is the option for phase 2 of the Belmayne Educate Together school has been offered by the school. It is clearly a better solution than putting these kids into prefabs. On the night we were all there, we heard parents who have children who will be attending the special school as well as children in Belmayne Educate Together urging the Department to use the phase 2 building that is already built and warmer and safer for these children who have additional needs. I urge the Department to please go with what the people of the area and all the elected TDs are asking.

Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment and wish him well on it. I know he is very committed to the area of special needs. I am very conscious that today is World Autism Awareness Day and I certainly do not want to be seen to be pitting one group of children against another, particularly given that the special school the Department wants to put into prefabs, which is totally unacceptable, is pitted against children who are also on the spectrum within the Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School. The use of prefabs as we have seen down the road in Gaelcholáiste Reachrainn, which were provided as a temporary solution but have become a 24-year permanent solution, is certainly not good enough for children with special needs. We need to knock this stupid idea on the head immediately and get these children moved into the school building with the Belmayne Educate Together, which is happy to welcome them to its building.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this hugely important issue. I will outline what we are doing before I go into the substantive issue.

The Department and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, continue to support children with special educational needs. I want to stress that enabling students with additional needs to receive an education appropriate to their needs is an ongoing priority for me and the Government. The number of classes, special education teachers and needs assistants are at an unprecedented level. In 2025, the Department will spend more than €2.9 billion on special education. More than one quarter of the entire education budget has been dedicated to special education in recent years.

The main supports this fund provides are the new special places, special education teachers and SNA posts. More than 3,330 special classes have been sanctioned by the NCSE and 408 of these are for the current school year. This includes 289 at primary level and 119 at post-primary level. Of 124 special schools nationwide, four schools are new for this year and further capacity has been expanded in 11 others. There have been five more schools established in 2025-26 in counties Cork, Dublin, Monaghan and Tipperary. There are two schools in Dublin. The new special schools are a key priority for the Department. This will bring to 16 the number of new special schools opened in recent years. In addition, budget 2025 provides for a dedicated special education innovation fund in recognition of the need to continually evolve and examine best practice to fund children with special educational needs. Funding has also been secured for targeted measures to help children with special educational needs when planning and transitioning to and from the various levels of education system. This has been provided for supporting teachers and special needs assistance in their enhanced training requirements.

In respect of the issue raised, Belmayne Community Special School is one of five new special schools due to be opened in the 2025-26 school year to meet the demand for additional school places in the north Dublin area. The urgency associated with establishing this new school means that existing accommodation must be utilised. This will then allow the school to be opened as quickly as possible. Belmayne Community Special School has been established under the patronage of Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board, ETB. The Department has proposed to locate the school in the existing modular accommodation on the Department's own site at Belmayne, which accommodates Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School. This is an interim arrangement for the new special school and the Department is working towards a long-term solution, including the exploration of the potential local sites options. Phase 2 of the school building for the Belmayne Educate Together school is due to be completed shortly and will provide a full range of modern school accommodation for 1,000 students and at least four special classes. The impact of utilising modular accommodation for a new special school means that some of the external play area of Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School cannot be delivered immediately as intended as part of the new school development, as modular accommodation occupies this area currently.

There is a requirement for a significant increase in the mainstream and special class enrolments in Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School in 2025-26 and in future years. The school will also be required to substantially grow enrolments over the coming years to meet the pressing requirements for special school places. This reflects the importance of using modular accommodation for a special school to maximise the available special classes and mainstream places.

Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School is naturally disappointed with the requirement to it retain the modular accommodation on site, but the Department is working closely with the school patron to support the optimised use of the remaining external area and the significant internal accommodation facilities at the school. Belmayne Educate Together Secondary School has offered the use of part of the new school building. However, this proposal would provide about 20% less usable space for the special school than would be the case with the modular accommodation. There would also be significant technical issues involved with repurposing it to meet the needs of the special school. Furthermore, it would impact on the requirement for significant growth in mainstream enrolments at the school into the future.

Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. It is indicated further on in the written response circulated to Members that there has been engagement with the school. There was a meeting with the school authorities on 25 March. I welcome that and the fact that additional engagement is planned. The concern which Deputy Brabazon set out relates to the long term, and that those students will be there in the long term. Will the Minister of State give a commitment regarding a timeframe for when the additional site will be identified locally in order that parents can have some certainty?

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He indicated that existing accommodation must be utilised. That is exactly what we proposed – to use the brand-new classrooms. He said that using the existing classrooms designed for students with additional needs would require repurposing and that there are technical issues involved. That would be nothing compared with the work that will have to be done on the prefabs. I have been in those prefabs. A huge amount of expenditure and repurposing would be required, and even then they would still not up to the standard of the permanent classrooms. I again ask the Minister of State to reconsider the position. It does not make sense to put children in prefabs when there is better accommodation available.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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I echo what my constituency colleagues said. Will the Minister of State visit the school in order to see the difference between the prefabs to which he refers and what a permanent school building would offer? We need a timeline for the delivery of permanent accommodation. This is not the Minister of State’s brief; it is that of the Minister for Education. We need a timeline for when a permanent school building for this special school will be delivered. The Minister of State needs to be fair to the parents and people in the area. You only need to look up the road to Gaelchólaiste Reachrann, where children have been in prefabs for 24 years on the grounds of another school. Nobody wants to see that repeated.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I also thank the Minister of State for coming to the cross-party meeting on autism. When I raised this matter with him, he looked at it straight away. All the TDs in Dublin Bay North have raised this matter because they have been fighting for it since before I was elected. There is a prefab pandemic in Dublin Bay North, as those involved with running Gaelchólaiste Reachrann have noted. People have seen how it is never a temporary solution.

I welcome what Deputy O’Callaghan said. The amount of work that would have to be done to make the existing prefabs suitable as accommodation for a special school would come at a great cost to the Department. I also welcome what Deputy Mitchell said. The Minister of State can visit the school and see what needs to be done. If he does so, it will change his mind.

Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. Like other Deputies, I feel a visit to the school would open his eyes to the potential there for the solution that has been proposed by those on the ground. In 2004, Dublin City Council, in developing Belmayne and Clongriffin, set up what was called the North Fringe Forum. The Department was invited to engage with the forum and was told at that stage that there was going to be a crisis in respect of school places. It did nothing. Those in the Department put their heads in the sand and denied that there would be a problem. Twenty years on, they objected to planning for residential housing. There lies the problem. We need to root out the problem in the Department.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for their responses and for their sincerity. The written reply was circulated to them, so I will not waste the time of the Dáil by reading it into the record. The position is obvious. The Department is continuing to liaise with the school authorities to find a solution. I take the point that a permanent site is the solution and that the prefabs should not be seen as a long-term solution; they are for the short term. If we are true to our word about making sure that we have special classes and special schools right across Dublin and the country, then this must be a priority. It is a priority for me and for the Government to identify and obtain suitable sites and build special schools rather than just depending on the use of existing structures.

I noted a number of the points the Deputies made. The Department has a technical team which has come back to us to say there would be 20% less accommodation if the special school was accommodated in the new building rather than the modular buildings. I will reflect on what the Deputies have said and go back to the Department.

The special school in Belmayne is a hugely important building block in the context of providing accommodation for children with additional and profound needs who live in north Dublin. It is important that it be put in place as soon as possible. I will reflect on what the Deputies said and will report back to them at a later date. There may be a collective meeting on the matter when I have a further update. I will certainly come back to them via email or by means of a meeting, if necessary.

I am sincere about what we are trying to do. This matter is hugely important to me and, as Members said, to the parents and children involved. We must work desperately hard to obtain solutions. The Department’s technical team is in contact with the school authorities. The team visited the school last week and will remain in contact with the management of the school. I thank the Deputies again for raising this issue.