Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to be here today to share the report of the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, Act 2004 which was published last Wednesday. It is a significant milestone in our shared work to create a more inclusive and equitable education system. The report allows for a moment of reflection - a moment to honour the hopes that inspired this landmark legislation introduced over two decades ago and to take the opportunity not only to see how far we have come but also how far we still need to go and, most importantly, the steps that are required to get there.

This is a significant step forward in shaping education policy and law based on the real lived experiences of children and young people with special educational needs and helping them achieve better educational outcomes. At the outset I sincerely thank everyone who has been involved in this review. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and I met most of them last week. The process has been deeply collaborative. I acknowledge the extensive engagement from advocacy organisations, school leaders, staff, parents representative bodies, professionals, Departments and, most importantly, the children and young people, many of whom have engaged in this themselves.

The area of special educational needs continues to be a priority for this Government, my Department, the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan and for me. While there is much work to do we have seen substantial progress in recent years with hundreds of new special education classes provided each year as well as new special schools around the country. For the upcoming school year alone, we will have at least 400 new special education classes across the country as well as five new special schools. We are working to ensure that young people are placed in these schools as soon as possible. These will provide up to 2,700 places for children who need them. An additional 1,200 places will become available due to the movement of students which means for the upcoming year alone we will have over 3,900 available places for children seeking a special class or special school place. As I said, the most important thing is that we are making sure children are allocated those places in the place that is most appropriate to them and that their needs are supported in that school. I want to ensure that in the coming year these classes are sanctioned sooner and that places are made available to children earlier. We have brought forward the timelines for the sanctioning of classes even earlier. To do this, we are endeavouring to have all special classes sanctioned by 31 December this year for the 2026-2027 school year. The timeline for parents to register with the NCSE has also been brought forward. This will ensure that the NCSE has an earlier picture of demand that exists to allow for new special classes to be sanctioned sooner, allowing more time for these classes to be prepared, children enrolled, giving more certainty to parents and families. That is what this is all about - how we support parents and children and take away so many of the challenges and stresses that they face.

To ensure that children can access the services they require, we are also establishing the education therapy service which will see occupational therapists and speech and language therapists working in our special schools. Over the upcoming school year, we will see up to 90 therapists working in 45 special schools across the country as part of the initial roll-out of this service. The intention is that very quickly that will spread to the remaining special schools, to mainstream schools as well as special classes in them.

While the progress I have just outlined has been positive for children and families, I remain acutely aware of the real challenges some families still face, whether in securing a school place or accessing the right supports. This review is a critical step in ensuring our education system meets the needs of all children and reflects a renewed commitment to building a rights-based, inclusive system for the future.

When the EPSEN Act was first introduced in 2004 it represented a bold and necessary step forward for Ireland. For the first time, we enshrined in law a commitment to provide for the education of children with special educational needs in inclusive settings, wherever possible. While parts of the Act were commenced, some were never fully commenced in law, owing largely to overly-bureaucratic requirements of the original Act. The EPSEN Act made provision for an inclusive educational environment, an equal right to education, and assistance to acquire the skills to participate in society and live independently and above all to ensure that every child is supported to achieve their full potential. The Act also established the National Council for Special Education on a statutory footing. It is an independent but integral part of making sure we can provide those school places and that our children and schools are supported.

Since 2004, fundamental changes have occurred in the school curriculum and in teaching, learning and assessment practices, which have considerable bearing on children with additional needs. There have also been considerable changes in how we allocate resources to schools to support children. Early years education has become an integral part of the education continuum, there has been major curriculum reform at primary and post­primary levels while developments in initial teacher education and continuing professional development have promoted active and experiential teaching and learning approaches, collective and collaborative planning and assessment for learning. Importantly, we are going to do more. As of next year, any person who is engaged in teacher training will have to do a mandatory placement in special education which has never happened to date. We are working to make sure the 79,000 teachers currently in schools are supported and upskilled in training around special education.

Inclusion, equality of opportunity and the rights of all children and young people to develop their full potential are central to our education policy. The then Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion, Josepha Madigan, announced the review of the EPSEN Act in December 2021 as the original legislative intention of the EPSEN had outpaced its practical implementation. I would like to thank my predecessors in this role, the Minister, Deputy Foley, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and Josepha Madigan, who have continued to bring this important work to this stage and I was privileged with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, to launch the report of the review last week.

The central purpose of this review was to assess whether there is an adequate legislative basis for the current and future educational provision for children with additional needs. It is about more than just structures but is about protecting the rights of children and families, ensuring high-quality educational experiences and that we are meeting students’ needs. The review seeks to align policy and law with lived experience. We want to make sure every child with additional needs can access the right supports at the right time in the place that is most appropriate for them.

While the EPSEN Act was a landmark in its time, establishing the National Council for Special Education and committing to inclusion, as I mentioned, it was never fully commenced. In the 20 years since the Act was passed, Ireland’s legal and educational landscapes have evolved significantly. Major reforms have taken place in curriculum, teaching and assessment, as well as in the broader inclusion and equality agendas. Given these changes, fully commencing the Act as originally written was not a viable option. That is why we are now looking forward and why this review was so necessary.

It reflects one of the most comprehensive consultations ever carried out in the area of special education in Ireland and was led by the special education section of the Department of Education and Youth. In conducting the review, we have listened to students, parents, educators, advocacy groups and experts in special education. Their input has been vital and will continue to guide the implementation process. I want to sincerely thank everyone who took part in this review and shared their own experience. Over 28,000 people took part in the initial public survey, a remarkable response that reflects the depth of public interest and experience. A structured programme of focus groups followed, involving students, parents, educators and professionals. These groups helped explore key themes in more detail and ensured that under-represented voices were heard. Children and young people in particular were always at the centre of this work and we really wanted to hear from them about their experiences. We held focus groups with 80 students, 35 English-speaking face-to-face students and 45 Irish-speaking students, who were under the age of 18. Participants took part in adult focus-group meetings with four actual meetings in various locations throughout the country and one virtual meeting. We also engaged in focus groups with younger adults too, aged from 18 to 25 years. We placed particular emphasis on ensuring children and young people could participate directly. I want to highlight the creation of an easy-read survey. That allowed children and persons of all abilities to share their views in a way that was accessible and meaningful. This was the first time such a process was used by my Department and was a method to ensure that all voices could be included. We received over 900 responses to the easy-read accessible online survey. No constraints were put on the body of work the review group has done. At a very early stages, my Department working with other Departments wanted to ensure every voice was heard, every concern could be raised and that nobody who was involved in the process felt it was constrained. We were not just looking at legislation but also at policy and all aspects of it. An academic review was completed to examine legislation, case law and international best practice. A very significant development captured in the academic review paper is the central position now given to the rights of the child and to the rights of persons with disabilities, as evidenced in legal judgments in Ireland and in international conventions to which Ireland is a signatory, notably the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. Ireland’s ratification of the UNCRPD obliges it to ensure that Irish legislation and policy regarding inclusive education are consistent with its core features. The review and the recommendations outlined are fully aligned with this rights-based approach. The steering group, working group and advisory group met frequently, I think it was bi-weekly, to analyse the evidence and develop the recommendations presented in this report.

I will name some of the review’s key findings. The process of reviewing the EPSEN Act has brought to light a number of areas where the participants considered that changes or developments in existing legislation, policy or practice were required. In particular, children and young people highlighted the importance of belonging, being respected and having access to life skills, active and experiential learning.

They placed significant value on relationships, the entire school environment and making sure their voices were at the centre of everything we did and were heard in the decisions that affected them.

The report identified 51 recommendations. It is divided into 16 key themes where policy and legislative reform is required. Among them is a recommendation to consider bringing all school-aged children under a single Act to ensure a legal rights-based approach to inclusive education. We have the admissions Act, the Education Act and the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. We have to consider how we bring legislation together.

Another key area is the completion of the roadmap towards an inclusive education system, one that is proactive and not reactive and supports strong transitions from early years to post-primary and beyond. Much of this work is already happening in order to make sure that we look ahead, plan for the future and do not just react as perhaps we have done in the past.

Other findings related to student support plans, which the review recommends be given a statutory basis to ensure consistency and accountability in meeting individual needs. The report also calls for a review of language used in the area of additional needs, something that we need to be conscious of. Critically, the review reaffirmed the importance of the rights of the child, meaningful parental involvement and closer engagement between Departments and Government agencies. It also points to the need for continued investment in professional learning for the education workforce, something I have mentioned. I wish to stress that we are working on an SNA workforce plan, which we hope to publish this September. These recommendations offer a comprehensive roadmap for change.

Many of the policy changes are stepping stones towards possible future legislation and can be progressed more quickly. Some of the recommendations we are already acting and moving on. I am committed to achieving these recommendations, working with the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and my colleagues not just in education, but in the Department of children and disability. Before the end of the year, we will publish an implementation plan. It will be grounded in these recommendations, which will guide how we move forward, strengthen the legislative and policy foundations of inclusive education and ensure proper implementation across the Government.

Ongoing engagement will remain a cornerstone of this next phase. It is important that the plan be published and this body of work happen. The most important thing we can do is make sure that all of the recommendations are acted on and we have a very clear plan in respect of who is responsible for the actions, what timelines we are setting out and how we make sure that we all hold ourselves to account so that these recommendations can be fully realised and achieved as soon as possible.

This will help to shape future decisions, positively impact the educational experience of children with special educational needs and their families, and help us to create a more inclusive and supportive education system for all. It is ambitious, but deliverable and absolutely necessary. I again thank all of those who have been involved in this process and look forward to working with them in the future.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. I thank my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, for her opening statement. I wish to thank those who conducted the review and Members of the House for the opportunity to discuss the review.

The review represents the most comprehensive national reflection to date on how we can support children and young people with additional needs in our education system. I want to acknowledge the significant effort by all involved in this process, in particular the thousands of individuals, including school workers, parents, representative groups and, most important of all, children and young people, for their huge contribution in providing us with their lived experience and the views that have culminated the report.

The 2004 Act has been in place for over 20 years, during which time significant policy developments have taken place in the field of special education. The review has been shaped by a commitment to open collaboration, with steering groups, working groups and advisory groups overseeing the process. Consultation with a broad range of stakeholders has been central to this effort, ensuring diverse voices and perspectives are heard. One of the defining features of the review has been the meaningful participation of children and young people. Focus groups and tailored surveys were specifically designed to allow students to share their experience in a comfortable and accessible way. This approach ensured that the voices of the students, in particular those with complex needs, shaped the direction of the review from the very outset.

One of the strongest messages to emerge was that we must build on lived experience to create effective, responsive and enforceable policies and laws. The objective we all share is a more inclusive education system, one that enables every student to thrive and feel he or she belongs. This means action on support services, curriculum design, resource allocation, the role of the SNA and school infrastructure, among others.

As in all other countries, though perhaps known by different names, there is always a place for the provision of special classes and schools. As articulated by the many stakeholders, there is support for the current continuum of education provision, which includes mainstream classes, special classes and special schools. The latter two categories are exceptionally important options, in particular for children with complex additional needs and their families.

As evidenced, work continues to be done to ensure the consistent high standards in the provision of special classes and schools. We also need to ensure closer co-operation between mainstream and special schools and classes. This will continue to assist in enhancing education outcomes for children and contribute to a more integrated and inclusive education system for children and school communities.

As the House will note following this extensive review, the steps proposed outline a pathway towards a more integrated and inclusive education system for all. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all stakeholder groups, including students, parent and guardian representatives, advocacy groups, academic experts, State agencies and Departments. I also deeply appreciate the engagement of students, parents and educational professionals and the wider public, whose contributions have shaped what we know as the EPSEN Act review.

Findings from our consultation process demonstrate that many participants share many common experiences with the special education sector and seek similar actions and improvements. We have gained invaluable insight into key areas such as technology, terminology, transition, lived experience and potential enhancements to support these structures. The findings of the review have resulted in a set of recommendations that fall into two key areas, namely, legislative-based recommendations and policy-based recommendations. Publishing the report, which the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I were delighted to launch last week, is only one step, though.

The development of an implementation plan before the end of this year is key to delivering on these recommendations. I propose to discuss the recommendations in the report in more detail. Across the consultation, a high level of consistency and consensus has emerged. Key areas identified for improvement include an inclusive education Act. The introduction of one inclusive Act for all children in respect of education would provide for a legal basis and framework for inclusive education. While the preferred method may be one inclusive education Act, other options may be considered. Work on this recommendation can run alongside policy recommendations. The review process overall showed that feedback recommended one single underlying legislative basis to ensure that inclusion was at the very heart of our State and any new laws we implemented.

Mediation or alternative methods for the resolution of concerns relating to education is a recommendation I hope will be of great assistance to parents. Mediation, or a method similar to it, is an alternative step that, once established, would allow parents to have a pathway to seek assistance with matters without having to incur excessive time delays or feel they have to take a legal route to access reports. This is something we are keen on developing over time.

The review also recommended that the Disability Act 2005, with particular reference to the assessment of need review, be reviewed in the interests of promoting timely and effective assessments of need and intervention processes. This is a priority for my colleagues in the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and we will work with them to achieve this.

Improving transition between early years, primary school and post-primary education pathways is a vital component in improving education for children with additional needs.

For a child born with additional needs, there will be a number of key flashpoints with difficulties and challenges when he or she goes to preschool, primary school, post-primary school and then on to post-education settings. Improving transition would allow for a more streamlined process from the time a child starts his or her education journey to the end of that pathway. This will be assisted by the forward planning steps the Department has taken and will continue to develop. The early years education system we now have in place did not exist to the same extent when the EPSEN Act was originally drafted. The review recommends that work be undertaken on providing a legal right of access to preschool for all children.

The report recommends that the term "student support plans" should be used in place of the original "individual education plan" and that this should be legislated for. Support will be put in place to develop an infrastructure for effective student support file management and student support plan implementation. This will build upon the work already under way by the National Educational Psychological Service on the continuation of support models used in schools to support all children.

The report recommends that enhanced workforce training and education, focusing on inclusion, should be adopted. This is an overall recommendation that will be adopted at all levels of the education workforce. It is very important that we acknowledge the large amount of work done by teams throughout school communities, whether in mainstream schools, special classes or special schools. The amount of work done by school leadership, teachers and SNAs is highly regarded by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and myself. It is very important work and we salute them for the great work they are doing throughout the education system.

The report contains a number of recommendations on the rights of the child. We need to ensure that we strengthen the legal rights of the child in the education system in a way that provides for more inclusive education as well as ensuring consistency in how we support children with additional needs. The review and the supporting reports outline the reasons for all the recommendations, and this evidence has been informed by vast consultation.

As we welcome the review and salute those involved in it, its implementation is how we will be measured. Some recommendations can be processed quickly. Others, particularly those requiring legislative change, will take more time. I assure the House that the political will is there and the Department's commitment on this is absolute. Implementation of these actions requires ongoing consultation and collaboration across all of Government. I look forward to working with all partners to make meaningful progress on improving the education of our children and young people. We are determined to ensure the review leads to real and lasting change for children and young people with additional needs.

I thank the thousands of individual students, parents, school teams and advocates who gave their honest contributions on the lived experience of special education. They have made this report possible. I welcome the discussion in the Dáil this afternoon. It is clear that there is great will, politically and at departmental level, to ensure we advance education for people with additional needs. My colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I will continue to work with all Members in the House to ensure we can bring change and develop more inclusive education of which we can be rightly proud.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the review and the review process. I welcome the publication of the report and the comments of the Minister and Minister of State. I have to say the proof of the pudding will be in the eating and I come to this with something of a jaundiced and critical eye. I accept there is evolution in thinking, in processes and in language but it has fundamentally always been obvious what is needed here. It is a matter of recognising that all children are equal and that the State has an obligation to support them to reach their potential, whatever that might look like. We have moved from review to review, to tweaking the system and tweaking the system again. The sum total of all this effort is to delay, deflect and deny children access to the supports they so obviously need. And the point is they so obviously need these supports.

There is a lot in the report that I welcome but I want to make a number of points in the time available to me. I have a concern about enacting and moving on a number of the positive recommendations by following the recommendation that legislation for all schoolchildren come under one Act. This would be a complex move and I fear it would take a very long time.

As to legislation underpinning student support plans, the same should happen with regard to reasonable accommodations. They should be legislated for.

I want to take issue with the fact that some sections of the Act have not commenced. Page 21 of the review states:

Sections 3 to 12 of the Act prescribed how such [individual education] plans were to be developed, the assessments they would entail, how their implementation was to be monitored, the role of the school principal, the parents and special educational needs organiser (SENO), and the appeals mechanisms that would apply to them. The intention in all of this was clearly to fulfil the Act's aims of providing an appropriate education for children with special educational needs but the apparatus as set out was widely regarded as impracticable.

The Minister said the same. Is this the case? Did children with additional educational needs see it as impractical? Did their parents? The review also states:

In addition to the perceived practical difficulties, there were concerns that bureaucratic requirements would place the demands of the plan rather than the needs of the child at the centre of the process. Sections 3 to 12 of the EPSEN Act relating to IEPs were therefore never commenced.

Let us not forget the rights and benefits these sections would bestow on the child and the obligations they would put on the State, such as the right to an educational assessment for all children with additional educational needs, the consequent development of a statutory individual educational plan, the delivery of detailed education services on foot of this plan, and an independent appeals process. The Minister wants us to believe these sections were not commenced because there were concerns that bureaucratic requirements would place the demands of the plan, rather than the needs of the child, at the centre of the process whereas this was about the needs of the child. The Minister must be joking. In my firm opinion, it was only ever about the Minister, the Department and the State itself protecting themselves, just as they are trying to row back on assessments of need. I note the recommendation to review the Disability Act 2005 and legal framework governing assessments of need and I have a serious problem with it. The Government should meet its legal obligations rather than reviewing them.

What makes me wonder further about the review is the fact it states with a straight face that sections were not commenced for fear of creating unnecessary bureaucracy and taking away from the needs of the child but it says nothing about the bureaucracy the Government has created in the National Council for Special Education despite the compelling evidence that shows this bureaucracy is a significant problem. A total of 49% of parents and 38% of staff said their contact with the NCSE was unhelpful or very unhelpful. A total of 25% of parents said their contacts with the NCSE were very unhelpful. This is a significant finding. I do not see anything in the report that points towards a fundamental root-and-branch review of the NCSE and the SENO model. I see them as gatekeepers and this is reflected in parents and staff saying their engagement with them is overwhelmingly unhelpful or very unhelpful. Ultimately, we need to provide supports for children who so obviously need them.

Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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Fáiltím roimh an deis ráiteas a thabhairt ar fhoilsiú na tuarascála seo. Is cáipéis chríochnúil atá os ár gcomhair inniu. Molaim an rannpháirtíocht leathan le páirtithe leasmhara sa phróiseas, go háirithe ionchur suntasach na ndaoine óga a tógadh san áireamh.

Ag an stad seo, is beag duine sa Stát nach mbaineann an cheist seo leo ar bhealach amháin nó bealach éigin eile. Is fianaise é an freagra mór millteach a fuair comhairliúchán an athbhreithnithe seo - d’fhreagair 28,000 duine an suirbhé ar líne.

More than 28,000 people responded to the review's online survey and more or less everyone agreed on one thing, namely, that there is still dire underprovision of education for children with additional needs in the State. The EPSEN Act sets out clearly that every child in the State should receive an education responsive to his or her particular learning needs regardless of ability. Shamefully, this is still a faraway reality.

The portrait painted in the report is bleak but it is not anything new. It is the same story we all hear, day in and day out, from our constituents and in the media. Families with additional needs face chronic difficulties in accessing appropriate school places in their locale, assessments of need, therapies, SNAs and SET support. Parents and school staff are in a constant uphill battle against an unrelenting, unforgiving and frankly maddening system. A total of 60% of parents said they faced difficulties in getting a place for their child. Some respondents still had their child at home due to a lack of a school place, and 75% of school staff reported difficulties accessing supports. The same percentage said that the supports did not meet the students' needs at all. When asked if they thought Ireland's education system gives an equal right to education for all children, only 20% of students and former students answered positively, while the response from professionals was even lower, at 16.7%. These statistics are damning.

The review raised a number of other key issues that should remain on our radar. Crucially, despite significant progress, a lot of work still has to be done when it comes to attitudes. Children with additional needs consistently rate a compassionate teacher who sees them in their wholeness as most important to their learning. We know that children really value the relational aspect. Sadly, bullying also remains a problem for children with additional needs. An important finding is that many children in mild special schools arrive there on the back of negative experience in mainstream schools. Again, I urge the Minister and Minister of State to reconsider their Department's decision to redesignate those schools that function as a haven for students. Further to this point, the report found widespread support for our current mixed model of provision. The following statement from a teacher stood out to me:

I think an inclusive model of education is not about pushing all children into the same building to be taught together. [It is] about valuing all types of schools, and allowing children to benefit from the best fit for them at that time ...

I urge the Minister and Minister of State to heed this point. They should stop delaying and taking cover behind the banner of inclusion. We need proper mechanisms to register demand for mild special classes and more special classes of all types to be sanctioned. Investment must continue to accelerate this year to finally put an end to children actively being denied their constitutional right to education. I am pleading with the Minister to bring this message to the Government in the budget negotiations because there can be no greater priority than this. Our children cannot wait any longer.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The report shows very clearly that the Government has lost control of special education and it is families and children who are paying the price. Instead of support, they are met with silence. Instead of certainty, they are met with delays. Parents in schools are being forced to fight for basic entitlements and children with additional needs are being left in limbo.

In Waterford alone, seven schools have contacted my office in the past three months. One had funding approved and then refused with no explanation. Another submitted a SENO report for increased support, which was ignored. One school is still waiting on a design team to make contact about a special class meant to open this September. Emails are being sent weekly. I have raised these with the Department and the Taoiseach on the floor of the Dáil. The schools are raising them repeatedly, but are getting no response. The anxiety for parents is overwhelming. It is July now and families still do not know if their child will have a school space when September comes. Right now in Waterford, children with special educational needs still do not know if they will have that school space in September. Parents are being told they will hear in quarter 4, which runs from October to December but school starts in September. St. John's Special School in Dungarvan is doing everything asked of it, but the Government still has not delivered the classrooms or supports.

This crisis did not come from nowhere. The Government ignored the warning signs and acted too late. It took parents marching on the streets and sleeping outside this building and Teachtaí Dála from all parties and none raising it on the floor of the Dáil for the Government to pay attention. Families need certainty and children need places. Action is needed now. It is not just mismanagement but a systemic failure and it did not happen overnight. Demand has been growing steadily for years. All the statistics, evidence and feedback show that. The Government should have known that this was coming but it failed to plan, build or deliver.

What followed the protests and the activism by parents, who should not have to take to the streets to fight for a school space for their kids, was a flurry of announcements before the Easter break. The problem has not gone away and those announcements have not solved it. The work has not been done or it has not been done quickly enough. There is a real fear among parents that, come September, their children will be at home or in overcrowded or inappropriate classroom settings. Parents are telling us that they do not want spin, they want answers, delivery and the proof of that delivery come September.

While this review has been a useful exercise and the report is welcome, schools do not want reports. They want resources. They are telling us what they want. The Government must take responsibility and heed what is in the report. It must also heed what parents, schools and my colleagues are telling it. It must deliver the classrooms, confirm the placements and start treating this for what it is - a crisis, not a communications exercise.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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Most importantly, following the review, these recommendations must be implemented in a timely manner and continue to be reviewed by the Department. I compliment all stakeholders involved in the review, particularly those affected on the front line. I acknowledge the work done by schools, staff, parents and children.

When it comes to additional educational needs, a large cohort of students throughout the country do not have the same access to education as their friends, family members or even siblings have. It is clear from the findings of this review and through our constituency offices that one of the biggest, if not the biggest, issue in additional needs is the severe delays in the assessments of need. The lengthy waiting list for diagnostics and assessments of need can leave parents and children waiting months and months for diagnoses in the first instance. They then wait more months waiting for the assessment of need in order to provide children with the necessary assistive technology and sustainable school place they require.

I am working with a constituent to try to acquire assistive technology for their child. The child falls just below the criteria for assistive technology but requires this resource for their education, according to the child's teachers and the school principal. It is now on the school or the parent to source this technology. While criteria for qualifying for assistive technology must be in place, it is a sad indictment that parents in schools are facing this financial burden just because a child is not ticking every box. This shows that the 18% cut in the ICT grant in 2024, from €79 million to €65 million, will not work. Nobody would deny a child access to assistive technology the child needs. It is needed to support the child's education. In this scenario, the criteria and application process are too rigid and another child may go without the resources needed for his or her education.

We are acutely aware that more than 10,000 children are now waiting on assessments of need and that tens of thousands of children are waiting on essential therapies. These delays ultimately leave children attending schools in places that are not suitable for their education and without the technologies required for their learning. Schoolchildren are attending mainstream schools and losing years in education as a result of insufficient resources and waiting on assessment. These children are being failed by this State. The frustration among parents and pupils is there for all to see. We saw it when protests were being held outside Leinster House and 24-hour sleep-outs were being held outside the Department.

Delays in diagnosis and assessment of need have serious consequences for a child. Delayed appropriate education has knock-on effects for almost every facet of education and these continue into adulthood, the workplace and employment opportunities. There needs to be a determined strategy now to rapidly ramp up the resourcing and staffing of these assessments. The really discouraging thing is how long we will all need to have this conversation. I acknowledge there have been developments in this area but children are still being left on waiting lists and are attending school places that are not appropriate for their needs.

I saw the announcement on the inclusion of in-school therapists and I am absolutely delighted that this great initiative will be rolled out in special schools. Will we have the staff ready for September? I hope we do.

Parents of children with additional needs are likely to be travelling long distances every morning and afternoon to get to and from a school that provides for that additional need. This is, of course, if they can access a special school. In my constituency of Cork North-Central, in the Minister of State's county, we hope a special school will be opened in Carrignavar. Right now, however, the resources are not in Carrignavar to open this special school. This means children will continue to travel long distances to get to school. The Government must focus on the need to provide the resources, be that through Irish Water or the local authority, to get the school up and running. It is unacceptable that every school year hundreds of children with additional needs cannot access a suitable school place near where they live or must travel for long distances.

It is very disappointing that the NCSE has no centralised application system. As policymakers, we do not know whether there are children still waiting for a school place. We do not know this because of the failure of the NCSE to have a centralised application system.

On SNA provision, the Minister of State knows as much as I do that the role of SNAs in schools is pivotal. SNAs do not get the same level of respect as their colleagues in the school setting get. They deserve that respect. We need to get rid of the 72-hour obligation on SNAs. I know the Minister of State agrees with me on that because he understands the role SNAs play in schools. SNAs should not have to clean out school lockers or do administration work, which is not within their remit, at the end of the school year just to meet this 72-hour obligation.

There is an equality issue for children with additional needs and a workers' rights issue for special needs assistants. The dogs in the street know that. We can wax lyrical about how much we value SNAs and their work but ultimately it means nothing unless we ensure that SNAs are well paid, secure in their work and have appropriate conditions to carry out their work.

I also want to look at the special educational needs co-ordinator role. As I have said previously, I have worked with these people and I know the level of work that falls within their remit. The SEN co-ordinator role has to be a stand-alone position in a school, rather than a promotion for a teacher.

I welcome this review which has a lot of recommendations. They need to be tackled immediately by the Department and I have no doubt they will be as I accept the Minister of State's bona fides on this matter.

George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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I thank all the stakeholders in this review. I will speak to the proposed changes to the special school system. Circular 39/2025 in part refers to the designation of special schools under the plan. The Department and the NCSE have said they intend to commence work on reviewing the designation of existing special schools to ensure that all special schools respond to the needs of children in their local region. I will use the example of Our Lady of Fatima special school in Wexford town, which caters for children with mild, general learning disabilities. The school has recently offered leaving certificate applied exams to students. This has seen some of its former pupils go on to third level and be accepted to apprenticeship programmes locally. Under the Department's new plans, pupils may be required to attend mainstream schools in their locality rather than travel to the likes of Our Lady of Fatima special school for their education. We need to stand up for the children with a mild, general learning disability because they thrive in places like Our Lady of Fatima school. They thrive in what these schools offer them. Children who attend special schools like Our Lady of Fatima special school would definitely struggle for many different reasons, including mental health or high anxiety levels, if they were compelled to go to a mainstream school.

The students in the likes of Our Lady of Fatima in Wexford town flourish. This school offers the primary curriculum, junior certificate level and level 3 subjects, and has started senior cycle level 2 and the leaving certificate applied. The students receive the same as they would in a mainstream school but the difference is the number of students is smaller. The anxiety they would have felt in a mainstream school has been taken away. Our Lady of Fatima special school can attend to their needs. As a result, the students in this wonderful school and wonderful schools like it across the country are successful in accessing the curriculum.

The argument that no child should pass the school that is right beside their house is understood, but schools such as the one I have mentioned should be an option for parents who want to send their children to them. The policy outlined in Circular 39/2025 creates the risk of students being very unhappy in an environment in which they do not flourish. The success of the children of Our Lady of Fatima special school when they leave school is proof of how it works. There is a strong chance that these students would not have been able to achieve this in a mainstream setting. Our Lady of Fatima special school is a model that works and the feeling now is that this model is at risk and that the education of the children who are content and anxiety free is at risk. Darryl Cogley, the chairperson of the school parents' association, has a daughter who originally attended mainstream school and then moved to Our Lady of Fatima special school. He said that children like his daughter require a specialised school and educational environment, and dedicated support. She got it at Our Lady of Fatima special school and continues to flourish on a day-to-day basis. I ask the Minister of State to re-examine Circular 39/2025 for the benefit of these wonderful schools across the country.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I should have called Deputy Gould earlier. My apologies.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and I appreciate him letting me speak. The results of this report are no surprise to parents or anyone involved with special education in Cork city. This Government and previous Governments have failed children with additional needs. Schools like Scoil Íosagáin in Farranree are crying out for additional autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classes. Rathcormac National School is crying out for special needs classes, having been passed. I hear from parents whose children now must go into mainstream education because there are not enough places, or no places, in the schools they attend. A new special school was promised in September for Carrignavar. Due to issues, this will probably not be delivered until next year. The children will have to travel from Fermoy. I know families who are living in the heart of the city, in Farranree, Gurranabraher and Ballyphehane, whose children will have to travel to Fermoy. These are children with additional needs. Some of them are going in the opposite direction, down to Rochestown or Carrigaline. They are spending on average of 45 minutes travelling each way. Surely these children should be getting the education where they live. We have pre-verbal children who have never had speech and language therapists. Parents are fighting for everything. They cannot even get basic hygiene supplies for their children. Surely this is just a given. Parents should just have to ask for this and it should be given to them.

The most vulnerable children are being let down again. Parents are asking me why they must fight for everything. Why must parents fight for everything when they have a child with additional needs or a child with a disability? What is this Government going to say to them? Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have jumped from one fire to another when it comes to children with disabilities. Parents have stood outside this Dáil and camped overnight here. They have led marches and protests, fighting for school places and therapies to help their children. These children deserve to reach their potential. By not having the services, school places and assessments of need, these children will not reach their potential. The Government is ignoring the law when it comes to those children.

Children with additional needs are some of the most vulnerable in the State. I plead with the Minister of State and the Government to deliver because it is time. I know the Government is trying to do certain things but it is only a drop in the ocean. We have an emergency in special education. Scoil Eoin in Ballincollig is looking for three additional ASD classes. Some children who go to the school have brothers or sisters who may be on the spectrum but these children cannot go to the school. How can that be right?

John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I will start by mentioning the July provision in schools around the country. One of the many successful measures taken by the Minister of State's predecessor was the expansion of the in-school July provision to mainstream schools, which occurred following the Covid years. I am not sure if the Minister of State has the figures but I estimate that tens of thousands of children are currently participating in July provision across the country. Schools have the discretion to extend participation, not only to pupils with additional needs, but to all children whom the school considers to be at risk of educational disadvantage. I commend the mainstream schools that have embraced the measure. This year, the scheme has become more amenable to schools. There is a great emphasis in the programme on well-being, wellness and connection. I hope that all the children who are participating in the summer programme are enjoying it. It was a great measure to take. It highlighted the fact that we have come a long way in terms of the provision for children with additional educational needs. I hope to see this programme grow and that more schools will become involved in the scheme in the coming years.

I welcome the publication of the review of the EPSEN Act. I commend, in particular, how thorough the data-collection process was as part of the review. I will start my own reflections on report by highlighting something that I do not think has been highlighted yet by any other speaker. This is the positive feedback provided by parents on how they rate the quality of the education their child receives in their current school. As I said, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. A total of 86.3% of parents with children in mainstream primary schools view the education their children are in receipt of as being "fairly good" or "very good". Some 87.6% of parents,m who have children in a class for children with additional needs in a mainstream setting, gave a very positive response and see their child's education as being "fairly good" or "very good". In the special schools, 86% of parents said they found that the education their child was receiving was "fairly good" or "very good". This is a very positive thing. It does not surprise me. As a teacher and as a parent, I would have assumed those statistics would be as they are but it is nice to see them written down and to see that they were collated in the manner that they were in this review.

One aspect of school life of the child where the reflections are not as positive is in the area of transition, be that children transitioning from one primary school to perhaps a school for children with additional needs or children transitioning between primary school and secondary school. In the implementation plan brought forward as a result of this report, we should examine this. We need to try to define how we do this well. I am sure there are good examples of this throughout the country, where the transition is done well between schools. We must examine that and try to make sure we implement it across the board.

I welcome the plan and the move to place the development of what was known as the individual education plan, and is now known as the student support plan, on a statutory basis. I expect that there are special educational needs organisers, SENOs, and inspectors who would have seen very good practice in the completion of the student support plans. They have become a very important document in schools. Again it is worth noting the feedback, with 75% of parents saying that they had been "fairly involved" or "very involved" in developing or reviewing their child's support plan. This is very positive. It highlights the importance the schools place now on the positive relationship between schools, teachers and parents in progressing a child's education. I will give some more of the data. More than 70% of parents said that they found the student support plan to be "helpful" or "very helpful" and staff really see it as being helpful. The figure for staff who saw the student support plan as being "helpful" or "very helpful" was close to 90%, I think. One of the things I noticed from the student support plans I read and participated in developing over the years was how they also tried to link with the other agencies that might be working with the child. It took the recommendations from other therapists and psychologists and tried to make sure the targets in the plan were included and implemented, and all the while, working with teachers and parents.

I welcome the feedback on terminology in the report. We should be conscious of its findings. Consideration should be given across the board to replace the term "special" with "additional". We should probably start with the Minister of State's portfolio. Maybe it is necessary to change the title of that to the Minister of State with responsibility for "additional educational needs" rather than "special educational needs". We can make all the legislative and policy changes that are planned but, ultimately, resource change is what will have the biggest impact. We need more SNAs and supplementary teachers.

Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I want to acknowledge the extensive work being done by the Minister of State with responsibility for special education. I have seen first hand his commitment to his brief. He has visited Kildare with me. He has visited the Presentation Girls' School in Maynooth, Maynooth Community College, An Garraí Beag in Donadea and St. Patrick's Primary School in Celbridge. The schools' staff, the parents and I appreciated the Minister of State visiting a few weeks ago.

I also want to acknowledge the extensive work undertaken by the Minister of State in reviewing the EPSEN Act. This is the most comprehensive examination of this Act in nearly two decades. The voice of the child runs deep throughout this review. Some welcome steps are proposed from improved interagency co-operation to strengthening the role of the NCSE and the recognition that children with additional needs should be supported in the setting that best suits them, be that mainstream, special class or a special school.

While the ambition of the report is clear, we must reflect on the reality for families. Many of them feel forgotten or unsupported at key moments in their child's development. I want to bring a few cases to the attention of the Minister of State. I have contacted the Department and the HSE about these. One concerns a 16-year-old boy who attends a special school in Kildare North. His family feels completely unsupported. They have been sent from pillar to post, pushed from one area to another, in order to try to get some provision for their son. Only two weeks ago, Nua Healthcare Services was sent out to do a review on behalf of the HSE on this young boy who is 16 years old. The family were told it would be able to support them. On Friday, it came back and said that it did not have the staff to support the family. This is completely shocking, because it is giving families hope under false pretences. It is completely unfair on this family and their son. Most of all their son needs routine and to be looked after and cared for. The family needs a little bit of respite. They only get minimal respite. At times the child is very difficult to care for, both for himself and for his family. I would appreciate the Minister of State's help in trying to find a solution for this family.

Another issue is related to Maynooth Community College. The SENO recommended a 0.5 increase for an SNA. It turns out that the college will not get this increase. Since 2020, the number of students in the school has increased by 400 but there has not been an increase in the SNA allocation. This is tied to the report on the EPSEN Act in the sense that it is trying to do what is best for each school and, more importantly, for each child going through the education system, particularly the special needs education system.

Another is Scoil Mochua in Celbridge, which was issued with a section 37A notice to open another class and which the school is happy to do. However, it transpired that the school does not have the space. It is looking to acquire a space. Again, in this case, the school has been pushed from agency to agency and from the council to Tailte Éireann to find a resolution for getting the space needed.

In all of these situations what stands out is not a lack of will. The political will is there; the will is there from parents and from schools. However, there is a lack of joined-up delivery. This is a problem we see time and again. I would have liked to have seen this report recommend a single body be given responsibility for the most profound cases. Instead of parents being pushed from SENOs to CDNTs to CAMHS to the HSE to special schools and then to different agencies, those particularly profound cases need a single, co-ordinated approach.

The CDNT claims it is responsible for building it, but there are also SENOs, and parents are trying to deal with all of these different agencies, which is extremely difficult.

Another proposal relates to the summer programme, previously the July provision. It does not fit into the mix for kids going through special education. I appreciate that the summer provision is in place but we should be looking at it differently from the normal education perspective, so that there is a continuation throughout the entire summer. It is not actually provision; it is a continuation of the classroom.

I acknowledge that the EPSEN review gives us a strong platform. The vision is sound but the delivery now needs to match that vision. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, is committed to that, and there is a commitment across this House. I will do anything I can to support him. I appreciate the efforts he has taken to support me and my constituents in Kildare North and children and families across the country.

Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the publication of this report. However, there is nothing new in it and without political will to implement its recommendations, it will be another report that is left to sit on the shelf. The fact is that the issues and shortcomings in the provision of education for pupils with special educational needs have been identified in the past, and spoken about in this House on numerous occasions. We now need to see implementation of the solutions. This review must be more than a box-ticking exercise. It must place the rights of children with special educational needs at the very heart of our education system. Children are not statistics; they are our future, and every child, no matter his or her ability, deserves the same opportunity to thrive, to learn and to be respected.

The 2004 Act was supposed to guarantee access to assessments and supports tailored to each child's needs, but across this State, parents are battling for months, sometimes years, just to get the basic supports. Teachers are stretched beyond capacity and are frequently utilised to replace missing teachers in other classes.

Let us talk about rural communities. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, visited County Clare. I visited rural schools there with him. Rural Ireland is always an afterthought. I am aware of a case where a whole family moved from another county to rural County Clare in order to access barely adequate services for their child. They are now facing longer waiting lists and further distances to specialist services, as they live in west Clare and all the services seem to be centralised. This is two-tier education and a postcode lottery. That is not acceptable.

Sinn Féin believes in a fully resourced, inclusive education system, rooted in fairness and equality. This means the right to timely assessment, delivering real supports in the classroom, and properly funding special education. It also means expanding teacher training, supporting SNAs and ensuring rural schools are not left out of the conversation.

The assessment backlogs must also be addressed as a matter of urgency. I have raised this before, both in this House and in parliamentary questions, and the answers I received have been wholly inadequate. The findings of the focus groups in this report clearly indicate there is a lack of appropriate school facilities. They also show that children are not treated as individuals and provided with the specific services they require, but instead are forced into a one-size-fits-all system.

Parents also say they are very worried about the lack of facilities for their children when they grow up and leave school. For parents, every step of the process is a struggle, one that they should not have to go through. The fact is that children and their parents are all too often ignored, yet these are the very people at the coalface every day whose insights and inputs should be considered essential. Given that every step of this process is a struggle for parents, we must ensure there is a serious change of ethos.

We have an opportunity to build a system that reflects our values, where no child is left behind, where education is a right and where rural communities like those in County Clare are given the support they deserve. Let us not waste it.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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In recent months, since the Government was formed, there have been announcements about additional school places for children and young people with additional educational needs, be it in special classes in mainstream schools or in special schools. There have been promises that special education will improve. I know the Minister of State and his officials are trying their best in every way to ensure that happens. This is very welcome.

I find it very hard to understand that elements of the EPSEN Act, which was introduced in 2004 - 21 years ago - are not fully commenced. I refer specifically to the right to an educational assessment for children with special educational needs; consequent development of statutory individual education plans, IEPs; the delivery of a detailed educational service on foot of the IEP, and an independent appeals process. I find it very hard to believe that after 21 years we have still not commenced parts of the Act. How many hundreds and thousands of children and young people have gone through the education system in those 21 years and have not been supported and protected by the Act? Is this perhaps a scandal that we will look back on in decades to come? I hope we are able to rectify that now. We have a responsibility to every single child in this country.

I welcome some special guests in the Gallery: Debbie O'Neill and her colleagues from a special school in my constituency of Dublin South-Central, Scoil Eoin. It is a school that supports children with mild general learning disabilities.

I have been raising the issue of redesignation for some weeks. I plead with the Minister of State to reconsider it. I have raised the alarm here and in the committee. We must check what we are doing with schools. I accept he says the children currently in the school will not be affected, which is great, but children are coming up who will be affected. He said last week at the committee that he would look at it. Perhaps a bit of a pause is needed for us to see where we can go with that. I look forward to hearing more about what exactly that looks like.

The rights of the child provide that educational reforms should prioritise children's well-being and safety, recognising that these are enablers of children's educational progress. This also applies to children with mild general learning disabilities. It is not their fault that the Department of education has not forward planned to make sure there are enough places for children with additional educational needs for this September or any subsequent year. I know the Minister of State wants to have catch-all schools but that is fundamentally a mistake. Those working in the schools also feel that, as do the parents. More and more people are speaking against that now.

We must look at the rights of every individual child. We are not talking about millions of people. To be honest, I do not know the number of children in the system, but it is thousands rather than millions. Every single child in the country counts. We must ensure we give them the best education we can. That includes, for example, the proper allocation of SNAs and initial teacher education. I welcome that there is going to be better initial teacher education, but there also needs to be continuing professional development, CPD, and fully trained therapists in schools to support children.

In this country, schools like those for children with mild general learning disabilities are experts at making sure that children progress to the best of their ability and way beyond, because they have got specialist care. It is the same for children who have more complex needs because, when there are experts involved, they will also thrive. We must ensure that every child will reach his or her full potential to learn, grow and thrive.

Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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I have been working with a parents' campaign group in Youghal in recent months, which is seeking the establishment of a new secondary level special education school in east Cork for children whose needs cannot be met by the autism hub in the local secondary school.

As we know, parents can be left in a deeply unsettling state of uncertainty in the lead-up to a decision on their school placement application. Many families in east Cork are facing the very grim prospect of commuting to Dungarvan, into Cork city or even Waterford city for their child's educational needs.

This means families transporting their child very long distances on a daily basis for their basic schooling, dislocating that child, who is already contending with so many challenges by virtue of their disability, from their community. This is entirely at odds with their interests and their rights, and is heaping chronic stress upon so many other challenges. It is also at odds with the UNCRPD.

The parents' group in Youghal had an encouraging engagement with the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, on 28 March. As a group, they could not be more constructive in their dealings with all public representatives and other stakeholders. They identified a possible site for a new school in Youghal. The need for such a school is very obvious and urgent. They also proposed an interim arrangement involving prefabricated buildings for the coming term while plans for a new school are being developed and progressed. The response from the Minister of State outlined the commitment of the Government to special education provision. He provided general investment figures to back that up, but there was no engagement with any of the detail of the proposals that the parents' group had discussed with him at the meeting in March, and had submitted to the Department.

These parents are facing another summer of uncertainty. Some are looking ahead to several years down the line before their child is making that very challenging transition to secondary school. Some of the families feel that their children's needs are being met at primary level in their communities at the moment, but what lies ahead is very unsettling for them and, as we know, these years pass quickly. I ask the Minister of State to re-engage with that group.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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The failure to implement key parts of the EPSEN Act shows that, while we remain a republic that has a proclamation that sets out to cherish all children equally, we are a republic of inequality when it comes to children with additional needs and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. They are not getting the education they have a constitutional right to and all the broad elements that requires. I am contacted by schools in my constituency that are facing severe difficulties with endless SET reviews, SNA reviews and the cutting of SNA positions and SNA supports. We know there are SNAs who could be employed by schools in this country, yet we have SENOs and the NCSE making decisions to cut SNAs and not allocate sufficient additional educational needs supports within schools. I visited one school that was doing incredible work to create a school in which every student could get support. I saw the parents bringing children with additional needs in and the struggles they faced. I saw the work the principals and the support teachers were putting in. As the teachers, the parents and the principals described to me, they are at absolute breaking point. The Minister of State can say the Government is providing additional places and additional resources, but they are not enough. Come September, we are again going to see children without school places. We are going to see a school system at breaking point in terms of providing supports for children with additional needs and all other children in these schools in classes, because they are all affected. We still need to address this system properly.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I will open with the words of Professor Joseph Travers, who wrote about inclusive pedagogy in Ireland in 2023. He says:

Given the exponential growth in special classes and the increase in special schools since Ireland’s ratification of the UNCRPD, a contradiction ... is apparent, which calls for a more radical appraisal of the purpose and role of these classes and schools.

He continues:

... we need to envisage a future where all children can attend their local mainstream schools. This may entail creative responses to the use of space, time, human resources and technology.

While I commend the Minister of State for this work, and thank everyone who has participated in this review, I am not sure we can characterise this appraisal as "radical".

In the best way I can, with the minute I have, I would like to represent the voices of teachers, SNAs, parents, and children I have spoken to, whom I am sure the Minister of State has also spoken to. It is characterised by saying that it always feels like a fight. It always feels like a contest. It feels like parents, children, principals, teachers and SNAs are always scrapping, fighting through bureaucracy and fighting for resources, and that is if they are lucky enough to get a school place in the first instance. I raise with the Minister of State the area of St. Mark's in Newbridge, which is going through that redesignation process. I ask the Minister of State to please reconsider this if he can.

I take issue with some of the recommendations of this report, such as the policy-based one regarding the efficiency and timeliness of the assessment of need review. There does not seem to be accountability in terms of a timeframe. The same applies with regards to a roadmap for the inclusive education system that should be developed. When, how and by whom should it be developed?

This review was very welcome and I commend the Minister of State on doing it, but we need to know what is next. There is an implication that change is coming, but without a roadmap, we do not know what that will look like.

Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Like others, I welcome the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. I commend the Department of Education and Youth on undertaking that critical work. Although many positives have been reported, the findings of the review confirm what some families, educators and advocates have long felt. We still need to work harder on delivering inclusive, equitable education for children with special educational needs, particularly those with Down's syndrome, general learning disabilities, and speech and language disorders. The review also reflects the voices of over 28,000 individuals and organisations. Among the most urgent concerns raised were access to timely assessments, the inadequacy of current placement options, insufficient transitioning planning and glaring gaps in class provision. These realities are acutely felt across east Galway.

One of the most pressing issues is the lack of balance in the allocation of special classes. In 2024, 92% of all new classes were designated for children with autism. While that provision in vital, the limited availability of classes for children with other needs, especially those with speech and language disorders, raises concerns about equality and inclusion. The review underscores the need for a system that reflects the full spectrum of needs in our schools. Circular 0038/2007, which governs access to speech and language disorder classes, remains unfit for purpose and continues to exclude children with learning and physical disabilities from accessing vital therapies and supports. The lack of post-primary planning, the refusal by some schools to accept students with special educational needs, and the overreliance on special schools, many of which have now reached capacity, have left countless families without realistic and fair options. The failure to accommodate children with co-occurring or physical disability contradicts both best practice and the commitments of Ireland made under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Families have shared their anxiety about the transition from primary to post-primary schools. That is critical. Too often, this process is marked with uncertainty and a lack of clear planning. The review calls for better transition pathways, which I support. Every child deserves the right to move through the educational system with stability, dignity and the right supports in place.

The shortage of general learning disability classes is another key issue. In Galway, for example, there are currently 152 special classes for autism. There are just two for children with mild learning disabilities and 13 for children with moderate learning disabilities. These figures highlight a need for a rebalancing of provision to ensure that no child is left behind due to the nature of his or her diagnosis.

I welcome the review, the emphasis on rights-based and inclusive education and its call for policy and legislative reform. It is critical that the work be matched by action. I encourage the Department to continue listening to the voices of people like myself, some professionals and young people themselves. With thoughtful collaboration and shared commitment, we can build an inclusive educational system that meets the needs of all learners. The challenges are great, of course, but I am asking that we rise to that challenge.

I commend the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, on their relentless energy and efforts in that regard.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the review report. I also want to take the opportunity to thank the Minister of State for the work done to provide additional special classes in County Waterford. We had a number of debates in the House over the last number of months and the Minister of State committed to improving services. It has to be said, additional classes were made available. That was a very important development for many parents whose children will benefit from those classes. I thank the Minister of State for his engagement and delivery of those classes.

We still have a long way to go. Unfortunately, there will still be some parents who will not have the appropriate school place for their children. We have to make sure that we are continually improving access to services, putting the capacity into schools, and making sure that we have the type of appropriate school places I know the Minister of State believes every child should have.

There have been several reviews over the last number of years. As my colleague said in his contribution, there has been review after review. The core of what we do has to be equality of access to education and, I would argue, services for each and every child.

At the moment, that is not happening. Every child does not have equal access to a school place and certainly not to services. That can be frustrating for parents who have to battle time and again to access services. Sometimes, it is a school place or it might be an assessment of need, access to a therapy or whatever a child may need. In some cases, it might be all those things. That has a real impact on the child and on the family as well.

The Minister's statement and the review talk about the EPSEN Act and bureaucratic problems in implementing all elements of it. The Minister also has to accept the failure of the State in resourcing disability services. Going back to the 2005 Act that provided a legal right to an assessment of need, the logic of that made sense. Each child would have an assessment that would basically identify the health and educational needs of that child. A plan for that child would then be set out and the Department would have to look at the aggregate needs of all children and provide the services. Of course, that never happened. Rather than acknowledge that failure, I see the Government making the Act itself the scapegoat for Government failure. It is saying the Act is the problem, as it created too much bureaucracy. It did not. It created a legal right that should have been vindicated. That is where we need to get to. It is not pie in the sky or overly aspirational to want all children with disabilities to be able to have appropriate school places and get the appropriate services they need. For far too many children, unfortunately, it is not happening.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Thank you, Deputy.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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We have a long way to go, although I acknowledge the work the Minister of State has done in the area of additional classes.

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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I welcome the review of the EPSEN Act and many of its findings. Ensuring every child's educational needs are met is imperative. Education should be inclusive and responsive to the needs of all children, but this is not the case in many areas where children with special educational needs are unable to secure school places. I understand the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is doing what he can to address the situation and I thank him for what he did for Little Angels in Letterkenny. We really appreciate that.

Donegal mothers should never have had to resort to travelling to Dublin to sleep outside Leinster House in order to be heard. We need a proactive education system, not a reactive one. I am glad the review recognises this and I support its recommendation to legislate for the legal right of access to preschool. All children should have the opportunity to attend preschool should their families wish they do so. To do this, we must start actively addressing the capacity and accessibility issues we are seeing in preschools, especially in rural areas such as Donegal.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan's comments on developing an implementation plan before the end of the year on delivering the report's recommendations. The annual dilemma parents face every September is that we do not have enough places for our children. Children with special educational needs deserve the same certainty as all other children that they will be able to attend school. We need to strengthen the legal rights of children within the education system and ensure that every child has equal access to education.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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I welcome the publication of the report. However, school places continue to be a major challenge in County Laois. New classes have been granted and I welcome that. New posts have been granted, but accommodation continues to be a problem and there is no timeline for delivery, despite classes being announced. Schools are asking where they can put the classes. Offices, little school libraries, which are generally small rooms, and storage areas, including cupboards, are being used as classrooms.

Killeshin National School got two special classes. There are very positive staff there and a positive principal in Ms McGuill, but they are struggling now to try to get those classrooms on site and to get work done for September when the two new classes of children will land in on top of them.

I welcome that St. Francis School in Portlaoise has been granted two modular classrooms. It has been approved. The work is due to start in a few weeks. I urge the departmental officials who are here to do everything they can to advance that and give it a sense of urgency. More children are coming in this year than going out. Mr. John Moran, the principal, and the staff are doing excellent work but they only have 12 classrooms for the 19 classes. The modular classrooms need to be completed to get them by this year. Four permanent classrooms have been granted planning permission and sanctioned by the Department. Again, that is welcome, but there will be a huge enrolment in September 2026 and St. Francis School needs the extra space to meet that. Four classrooms have been sanctioned. The work is ready to go and will soon need final sign-off. Planning permission has been granted. That project needs a sense of urgency now to ensure St. Francis School is able to take all those additional pupils in September 2026. The two modular classrooms are needed this September.

Anything the officials can do to advance these projects would be welcome and appreciated by the boards of management, staff and parents.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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There are some positive points in the review, in that children who were appropriately placed felt included and that their needs were being met. It shows that if the resources were put in, many other children and teenagers could feel that. Unfortunately, I have to emphasise the problems. In the review, 60% of parents had experienced difficulty finding a place in an appropriate setting despite the fact that more than 50% of parents had identified the needs of their children before they went in. Some 26% of parents experienced difficulty finding a school place at all. I imagine the percentage is a lot higher in Dublin and other urban areas, based on the figures we have heard at the education committee.

I need to ask again what we asked the Minister of State at the committee last week: how many children do not have a place? The schools are now closed. The Minister said in a previous meeting that 3,275 were notified to the NCSE as needing a school place for September 2025 and 8% remained without a place. Therefore, we take it that there are 260 children who do not have a school place. That is a real failure. It is far too high. We had a task force. We had protests and all sorts of thing in my area and many other areas last year. Every day, the Minister of State's Department is blocking parents in court who are taking cases over their children's legal right under this Act to a proper assessment and proper education.

I will mention Ms Charlotte Cahill, who will attend the committee tomorrow. She received 60 school refusals for her daughter before she found a school place. She was one of the heroic parents who slept outside here. Thankfully, her child has a school place, but she continues to battle for others. There has to be investment in this.

There is a real problem finding teachers. I was shocked that the Minister of State said there was no teacher shortage. We have to call the Government out on this. It is gaslighting to say that. We know there is a teacher shortage. It has been said by all the unions. It is everywhere around the country, but particularly in urban areas, especially Dublin. The Minister of State needs to correct that because it feeds into the inability to find teachers for special education as well.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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I welcome the long overdue publication of this report. AsIAm has pointed out that it is worrying to see references to amending the Education Act, which could delay the action we need to see. All parents know, and the Government acknowledges in all its statements, how crucial timely intervention is, but for many it is not delivered.

I will take the opportunity to raise an important related issue. It was referenced already, so I will be interested to hear whether there is a response from the Minister of State. It is the proposed redesignation of mild general learning disability, MGLD, schools to focus on students with complex needs. One of those is Scoil Eoin in Crumlin, which many children from Tallaght attend. It seems to be a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is the Government failing to provide adequate supports and then pitting children with different needs against one another in a battle for resources. By all accounts, the 30 MGLD schools are working well.

They are making a huge difference to the children who go to them and they should be left as they are but with additional resources provided as needed. There must be no question of forcing children out of these places and into mainstream schools in order to free up places for children with complex needs. One mother who wrote to me put it very well. She said: "It risks putting children like mine back into a system that already didn't work for them. Inclusion, when done without the proper supports, is not inclusion, it is just displacement."

PBP councillors and activists are working with the affected school communities to organise campaigns to oppose this Government's attacks on schools for children with MGLD. We demand an immediate pause on all redesignations and proper resourcing of all education so all children have access to school places appropriate to their needs in their local communities, as is their right under the UNCRPD.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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We in Independent Ireland stand firmly behind the implementation of the EPSEN review report recommendations. The time has come for long overdue justice for our children with additional needs. We have seen two decades of delay since the EPSEN Act was passed in 2004, yet here we are with the core rights promised in law, like individual education plans and proper assessments, still unfulfilled. This is not just a legal technicality. It is a moral failing. It means thousands of families are still waiting for timely diagnoses, proper supports and an education system that recognises every child's potential.

The EPSEN review has laid out a clear and measured path. It tells us what parents, educators and, most of all, children have been saying for years. The current system is overstretched, overly bureaucratic and underdelivered. I agree completely with the line in the report that says simply commencing the Act as it stands is not enough. We need a system that works, is practical and rights-based and is centred on the needs of the child, not the convenience of the system. It is time to reduce the paperwork and red tape choking our schools. The teachers of Ireland did not stand up to spend their days filling out forms and chasing signatures. They want to teach and support every child, not just those who shout the loudest.

The report rightly demands a stronger voice for children and families in planning their education. We echo that call. Parents must be heard. Children must be seen not as burdens, but as citizens with rights. We as politicians see this daily in our clinics - parents fighting for every little thing. We have Michael in Clonakilty waiting seven years for an assessment of need, and he is still waiting. We have another young lad in Dunmanway waiting eight years for an assessment of need. His older brother, who is 12, was diagnosed with autism at two and a half. That was ten years ago. It is highly likely that this young lad also has autism but he is still waiting. We have a young lady aged 19 who was diagnosed with autism at two years of age but her family has had to fight for any services she got. It was recommended that she have speech and language therapy and occupational therapy over the years but she got very little. She fell behind academically as a result and is now being refused disability allowance. They are only three cases but there are thousands more.

Near my constituency, the Bishop Galvin Central School in Newcestown, Bandon, County Cork, is well known and highly respected for its commitment to all of its pupils in providing a welcoming and inclusive educational experience for children with additional needs. The school has a current enrolment of 230. An ASD special class was opened in September 2021 and six pupils are currently enrolled. A second ASD class will open in September 2025. Over 30% of pupils in the school receive some form of support for special or additional needs and almost 15% of the pupils have diagnoses and recommendations from registered occupational therapists. Many are awaiting services. Despite a growing number of children with complex functional challenges, the school does not have access to on-site occupational therapy services. Instead, the special needs team, led by Mr. Nicholas McCarthy, deputy principal, must navigate a complex web of service providers, including primary care, children's disability network teams and private practitioners, to gain access to appropriate supports for children.

The Newcestown school is collaborating with University College Cork and trying to secure on-site supports for pupils with special additional and complex needs. University College Cork offers a four-year undergraduate bachelor of science honours programme in occupational therapy. A core part of the four-year programme is 1,000 hours of supervised occupational therapy practice education for placement hours. The head of UCC's department of occupational science and occupational therapy, along with the practice education co-ordinator, visited the school on 4 April 2025. They were very impressed with the school's vision for a school-based occupational therapy service, which will allow occupational therapy students to complete practice education placements and provide a support for the staff and students of the school to benefit from an innovative school-based model. However, in order to establish this project, the school will require funding for the practice tutor role. This costs approximately €20,000 per annum, which is minimal when considering the huge benefits to the occupational therapy students, children and staff in Newcestown. This could become a blueprint for rolling out at national level. I ask the Government to please engage with the school on this particular subject, and I will send the Minister of State the details.

Independent Ireland welcomes the recommendation on how inclusive education should be progressively realised but let us be honest, we are not there yet. Rapid expansion of special classes, mostly for autism, has been a stopgap but not a long-term strategy. We cannot let inclusion become just another buzzword. It has to mean something real and that mainstream schools are properly resourced, teachers properly trained and therapies delivered on time.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The Government has had four years to produce a review of the 2004 Act, and God knows how much it has cost. Ultimately, it tells us what we already know. The problem is that the review of this Act is now telling us to review another Act, the Disability Act 2005. It is an incredible situation.

The Government talks about the need for a legal, rights-based, inclusive education system but we all know that when it comes to children with additional needs, this Government disregards those rights and actually breaks the law. It is quite incredible that the Government is a lawbreaking Government when it comes to the rights of children with special needs. It is remarkable that any government would be in that situation. The Taoiseach is on the record as saying that the HSE is not in a position to fulfil the law on assessments of need and that this should be completed within a six-month timeframe, but because of this situation, there is now a chance that 25,000 children will be on that waiting list before the end of the year.

We in Aontú stood with Cara Darmody outside the gates of Leinster House recently when she was involved in that 50-hour protest trying to seek the right to have assessments of need given in a timely fashion. Children without assessments of need are often left without a diagnosis, treatment or supports and locked out of the education system. If children do not have assessments of need or early interventions, it is a significant challenge to them achieving their potential. The Minister, Deputy Foley, told the Cabinet that this was misinformation. She said that information being put out was highly insulting, but listen to the families themselves, the families who are at the coalface of this crisis. The Government would do well just to sit down and speak to the families in this situation.

I will give an example from my constituency. I have been contacted by the foster mother of a seven-year-old boy who presents with very complex behavioural needs. That child has unfortunately been expelled from two preschools and suspended from a primary school four times. He is now being deprived of his rights to an education and has been abandoned by the system for nearly two years of waiting. The foster mother contacted Tusla, CAMHS, the disability services and social workers and has even tried to contact private psychologists, but everywhere she turns, she is met with a wall of delays. When Tusla found out that she had contacted me, it actually scolded her for contacting a TD in this situation, casting a chilling effect on her and her ability to advocate for her foster son. That is a shocking situation and I come up against it on a regular basis where TDs cannot advocate on behalf of citizens. There should be a constitutional right for TDs to be able to advocate in a situation where the rights of children are being denied and the efforts of parents are being spurned.

What is the Minister of State's advice for my constituent when her foster child is being refused an assessment and his legal right to education? For this child, there is a tragic and direct link between the lack of essential services available to him and his ability to grow and thrive in an educational system.

I ask that the Minister talk to me and the parents to see whether there is a pathway for the parent to vindicate the child's right.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Some Deputies on both sides of the House missed their slots. I will take them in the order in which they appear.

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House to discuss the publication of the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. The report is an overdue milestone and a wake-up call. Now, 21 years into that EPSEN Act, we must be real. Parts of the legislation have never been implemented. The Ombudsman for Children highlighted in 2021 that key provisions, especially those concerning assessments of need, were unactioned and placing intolerable pressure on children and families. As the Minister of State is aware, many children endure long waits for assessments and supports and rely on the interim system which is failing to meet basic legal obligations.

A report by the Ombudsman for Children, Unmet Needs, details delays of well beyond three months. This demonstrates the legislative inertia that is causing serious consequences. This review responds directly to systematic failings. It draws on extensive input from 28,000 responses, of which nearly 1,000 were from children and young people, to agree 51 concrete recommendations. These aim squarely at the heart of the issues flagged, namely, uncommenced legal provisions, delayed assessments, weak accountability and, most crucially, children's rights being overlooked in practice. The review makes a particularly striking call for a unified legislative framework covering all school-age children. Also urgent are statutory student support plans and strengthened assessment of need timelines, which is exactly where the delays have been most damaging.

The publication of the review is not an endpoint but a starting point. We now move forward with this review for children and their families. The Government must produce a detailed implementation plan as soon as possible, with clear timelines, funding allocations and accountability mechanisms. We need to revisit the Disability Act 2005, which was a long time ago. We need to ensure the rights of children and provide therapies alongside that. We must make sure the legislative underpinnings that are secured for the children and their families work for the children. We must not introduce legislation for the sake of it but pass legislation that works for children and their families. Without resources, time and accountability, we are not going to get the answers and children will not get a proper education. We need laws that work for the child, not a system that has failed thousands of children.

The Minister of State knows what the issues are. He and I worked together closely on the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. He lives with these issues constantly in his new role. Children have the right to an education that fulfils their needs. We have to solve the issue of SNA allocations in schools. There is chaos in the application process. Children and families deserve better.

The review is not enough. It must be a starting point to seriously and without haste enact its recommendations. There is an incredible amount of work to do. The Minister of State has created a number of special education classes in schools. Making sure that every single child in this country has a proper and adequate classroom keeps him awake at night. I congratulate the Minister of State on his work. I wish him the best in his endeavours ahead. He has my support.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the review. We have been waiting for it for a while. I do not want the House to be in this position again of debating legislation from 2004 and 2005. I do not want to pass legislation that we cannot live up to, as we have done with the assessment of need process. There are timelines in the Act that the State is consistently failing to deliver. Whatever we do with this review, we need to ensure that people can avail of the resources and supports required in the area of special education, schools can deliver those supports to students and we do not find ourselves in this position again as regards the assessment of needs process, where we cannot implement the very legislation we are attempting to introduce.

I have issues with the assessment of needs process and I will use the couple of minutes I have to talk about them. The one thing that gave me a bit of optimism or cause for hope in the past few months is that, despite the legislative changes that might come down the line, we are talking about giving people access to therapies at source and that it will not be contingent on diagnosis. I hope we can continue that.

There is a requirement to expand reading classes. I taught in a school for 15 years. Why have reading classes and early intervention classes not been expanded? These could provide early intervention to students without a requirement for a full diagnosis. They need to be expanded.

We need to look at models. The Minister of State visited the Rainbow Club and will probably visit it again with me. We need to look at how it provides therapies and interventions to students of school-going age. It is not the same model as the HSE uses, the clinical model we have become accustomed to. The Rainbow Club model should be the footprint for what we do providing special education needs into the future.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the review. I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, the best in office. I know he is committed to this area and will ensure that change takes place in the best interests of the children and schools concerned.

While the review is being studied, there is no need for a delay or a waiting process. We have to respond immediately to the concerns expressed by parents and others about what they are not receiving for their children in schools. I always find it difficult to understand the reason Departments tend to wait for legislation and then to act. We have children in very difficult circumstances today. Many speakers have recognised their difficulties and the House has said clearly that we want each child to reach his or her full potential.

I ask the Minister of State to look at where the problems are. That is the obvious thing to do. I have raised Jonah Special School in County Kilkenny on a number of occasions. It was promised a new building but because it could not build it in the way the Department wanted, the school was deprived of any form of building or extension. It has a fine site. It is a special school and does fantastic work. The Department is putting the building before the rights of the children who attend the school and those who are waiting to get into it. It is unforgivable that the Department would act like that. The very same Department does not even respond to some of the queries that are put to it. It certainly has not responded to my queries, which I have raised on the floor of the Dáil, and I have now raised a particular query today.

The other issue is transport for children to get to these schools. That should not be put on the long finger. These children should not have to be overly examined. It is obvious that the transport is needed and the child has special needs, yet they are still being asked to wait.

I want to make a special case for foster carers, a group that has not been acknowledged for the work they do. They too look after children with special needs. They should come first and foremost in terms of what is required because foster parents are doing their best. A lot of changes need to be made in that area.

I will also be asking that there are changes to the budget in the context of the support for their needs.

I wish to highlight the case of a child in Kilkenny who does not have a place. The child is non-verbal and needs immediate intervention but nothing is arranged for that child. Another child who needs special support has been told he cannot go to transition year in secondary school. That is appalling.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I have read the document and, to be honest, most of it reads as a list of the failures of the systems of this Government and previous Governments and their failure to ensure that children with additional needs get the help and support, and, therefore, the education, they deserve.

I have experienced a number of key ongoing issues. I started working as a family support worker in 2001. I worked with families, many of whom had children with additional needs. To be honest, the situation got worse and worse between 2001 and my election in 2020. Access to therapeutic supports and services has deteriorated to such an extent that children in Dublin 15 are waiting over 72 months for an assessment of need. That is an appalling failure and does not need a review to report to ensure it is sorted out. In fact, the Government, as the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, knows, has a legal requirement to carry out these assessments but this Government and previous Governments have consistently broken the law.

I welcome the work of the autism common application trial group. We had feedback today. I know the Minister of State was at a subsequent meeting. We were at the all-party parliamentary committee on autism. There was positive feedback from parents. I expect the recommendations from the parents to be implemented. More importantly, I ask that every school will get involved in year 2 of the pilot project. That is essential. There were 13 schools involved in this year's pilot project but there are 33 schools out there that have children with additional needs in special classes.

I ask the Department to look at the schools which go above and beyond to give children the support they need. I will give the example of a school in Tyrrelstown that has seven special classes. It is getting an extension but is losing valuable space in the school. It has asked for a sliver of land from the council but the Department has refused to engage with the school and Fingal County Council. I find that astonishing. The school has gone above and beyond to become a leader in working with children with additional needs. It is just looking for a small sliver of land. I will pass the details to the Minister of State. Perhaps he could try to help with the Department in that regard.

I do not have time to go through all of the recommendations but as a parent of two primary school teachers, I think training is essential for teachers, special needs assistants and ancillary staff, including caretakers, school secretaries and the other people who work in the school, so they can understand, help and support those students when they need it. That is how those students can attain the best education we can give them. I appeal to the Government to ensure that this is not just another case of report after report and that the situation will be reviewed again in a few years' time when nothing of substance has changed. To be honest, this is about children and their education. They get one chance at this and it is important that they are given the best chance.

Keira Keogh (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, for all they are doing to try to move the dial for disability matters and children with additional needs. Fifty-one recommendations have come out of the review of 2004 EPSEN Act. Two decades ago, the Act set out ambitiously to ensure equal access to an education system that would recognise the potential and rights of our children with additional needs. We must acknowledge that many improvements have been made in those two decades, including an increase in the number of special needs assistants, SNAs, and positive changes in how they are allocated, as well as other resources.

We must also acknowledge the increase in special education teaching hours and an increase in special classes from only 400 in 2010 to 3,400 in 2024. I also acknowledge and look forward to the roll-out of a return to schools of therapists, such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and behaviour support specialists, not as HSE staff but as staff of the Department of Education. We are starting with 90 therapists in 45 schools, and I hope they are rolled out in a meaningful way whereby they are actively in classrooms for a period of a day, rather than just being set aside for one-to-one therapies. They can help with what is happening at circle time, physical education, PE, time and academic time by looking at the whole classroom approach rather than just being involved in one-to-one sessions.

We must also consider the fact that sections 3 to 12, inclusive, of the Act were not commenced. They would have seen a legal requirement for individual education plans, IEPs. As a behavioural consultant who worked in the area for 19 years, I understand why we now need a shift to student support plans that are responsive and dynamic, rather than prescriptive and inflexible. Over the past two decades, we have seen some schools carry out IEPs excellently. For other schools, they have sometimes been a tick-the-box exercise. IEPs, when handed over from one teacher to another or one school to another, can be a good roadmap to show what the student has achieved. Sometimes IEPs are not reflective of what was happening on the ground and are just nice documents. We must ensure that student support plans are child-centred rather than bureaucratically centred. All of our children deserve a positive learning experience and an opportunity to realise their full potential when they go to school.

I want to consider some of the recommendations. There was reference to an inclusive environment for our children. What does that really mean? It means that they are able to move flexibly between settings. Killeen National School outside Louisburgh does this very well. It is a small rural school. I worked with one particular kid and from the get-go when he joined the special class, he was included in art, lunchtime and PE. The curriculum may have had to be completely adapted for him, but he stayed with his peers all the way up and graduated from the school this year. It means that those children are invited to birthday parties and are played with at lunchtime. "Inclusive" must mean that children are included. It does not just mean that support is on offer beside the school or in the same school. It is about interweaving support through all activities.

We must also look at changing the ratios for approving new special classrooms or autism classrooms. I know the ratio was reduced from eight teachers to six teachers, but we must consider rural schools. There are some schools in my constituency in Mayo that will never reach six teachers. I think of Mountpleasant National School, which has already identified three children who would love to stay in the school with their siblings and avoid long bus journeys. By being in that school, as I said, they might be invited to the local birthday parties and become a part of the community. I thank the Minister, Deputy McEntee, who worked with me on this issue. We hope that in 2026, we will be able to open a classroom in the school in a flexible way without the need to reach six teachers.

We also need to consider the language that is used and I was glad to see that point being highlighted in the review. We need to move away from the health view of diagnoses and into an access and inclusion perspective. With that, we should do away with language such as "units" and stick to using "classrooms". They are not units or clinical settings. They are learning environments and classrooms. We must move away from "autism spectrum disorder" to person-centred language. You do not "have autism" but "are autistic", and are proud to be autistic and to have a different neurotype. We also need to move away from "special needs". They are not special needs but additional educational needs. We must help these children to realise their full potential in life.

Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I held a public meeting about the EPSEN Act in 2023 as part of the review. Like anything involving parents with children who have additional needs, it was an eye-opening experience. I thank all the parents who have reached out to me over the years. The most important question we need to ask is whether children are given equal access to education by the system which supports their development. We have come a long way, especially in recent years. The answer is that we still have a long way to go.

I will speak about some of the things I covered in my submission a couple of years ago. At that meeting were parent representatives from Chasing Justice, the Dublin 15 autism campaign, AsIAm and the Children's Rights Alliance. We will not have an inclusive school environment and culture if inclusion is not supported throughout the education system. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, are moving on teacher training. All students teachers need experience in special schools and classes. While inclusive education is covered in initial education training, it is limited and theoretical in its approach. Dyslexia needs far more attention.

The Minister of State knows I support the provision of more reading classes.

There should be better access to continued development for qualified teachers and comprehensive training for members of boards of management. Without a consistent approach in the training of teachers, the experience of students will continue to be inconsistent. Despite the investment in special education - and it is significant - we do not have an effective forward planning system for the delivery of school places and enough appropriate supports. We are still in an annual cycle of a scramble for school places for children with additional needs. The Minister of State and I know this needs to end.

I welcome the new timeline the Minister of State has outlined to sanction new classes and the bringing forward of the deadline when students should be alerted to the NCSE who require a special class or special school place, but 1 October is very early in the admission cycle and school year. Parents and guardians must be no doubt about how this process will work. That is why I have already suggested to the Minister of State a campaign that goes beyond the NCSE, schools and public representatives to generate awareness, and not just of the timeline but how it actually works. We should also be planning five years in advance to meet the new projections that the Department has for children with additional needs.

I also wish to talk about trust in the NCSE and the parent experience. Too many parents are still being let down by the system and I continue to be shocked on too many occasions by interactions with the NCSE. I applaud the task force in Dublin 15 for its work. The Minister of State met its members today. The common applications trial and the collaboration between the Department, the NCSE, parents and schools will bring positive change. Yesterday, however, as the Minister of State knows, I was again in the presence of parents in a desperately unfair and unacceptable situation. The school in question has outlined a sequence of events based on its workings with the NCSE that point to a legitimate understanding and expectation that the students had secured places in their local school. Many are already members of the school and school community, but the NCSE seems to have taken a dramatically different approach in recent weeks. For the life of me, I cannot understand how we have ended up where we are. We need to have positive and constructive relationships with our local schools. Whatever promises have been made need to be kept. I know the Minister of State is aware of the situation and is prioritising it as we speak. I urge that there be a resolution and clarity as soon as possible.

I also welcome the student support plans, or the individual education plans as I know them, being put on a statutory footing. I do not want to be talking about securing school places all the time. I want to be talking more about what happens when children get into the school.

I support the AsIAm call for special education policy to be rooted in legislation. That is important. It has been 21 years since the EPSEN Act. We had an implementation plan. We need to start implementing that policy and seeing the benefits and the transformative change that the Minister of State, the Minister and the Government are working on.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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This is one of the most frustrating issues I am dealing with in County Kerry. It is clear that too many children are being denied their right to education. Parents are contacting me about this issue, including, recently, one parent who has been involved in education for 20 years. Her other children have gone through the system. It is with her youngest child that she has faced the system and the bureaucracy. She feels increasingly frustrated, despite having given every inch she has to obtain an early education class for her child. She is not succeeding and it is of great upset to her. This is a woman in the Killarney area. Other families also feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel and that their children are being left behind and not getting as fair a chance as other children.

I raise the issue of early intervention for preschool autistic children, who would get a support teacher and an SNA. One child, who has profound needs, is non-verbal and needs 24-7 support, has recommendations from the NCSE and a SENO that he be offered a place but has been denied one in Killarney because none are available in County Kerry. What makes the situation even more frustrating is that there is a school, with the staff, the space and the support of the school principal, willing to establish the early intervention class in Killarney town, but this has been refused. More children are being locked out of appropriate education for yet another year. The people of Kerry are feeling let down because they see there are only two early intervention classes in the whole county. While I should not look at neighbouring counties, there are way more in those counties. Even one town neighbouring County Kerry has more early intervention classes than the whole of Kerry combined. It is not a very big town either.

When we drill down further into the figures, the situation is bleak. There are six places in each of County Kerry's two classes because many children need to stay on for a second year. The number of school places available at the start of every school year then becomes even smaller. This year, only three or four places were available for the whole county for 1 September 2025. It is not good enough to say this situation is being looked at and a place will be available next year. This is undoubtedly a nationwide crisis and no county has escaped, but the situation in Kerry seems way worse than anywhere else. Children are at a significant disadvantage. One would think the Government would be stepping up to the plate and ensuring the spaces are available early, because - as the mother told me and the research clearly demonstrates - early intervention vastly improves outcomes for children and can negate the need for classes at a later stage. I ask the Minister of State not to ignore them and the other classes in Castleisland, Castlemaine, Moyvane, which I asked the Minister of State about previously, and the Presentation Secondary School.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I welcome the publication of this report. I thank the Minister of State for the fast engagement with the issues I raised with him concerning north Dublin. I have one issue I would like to raise with a simple solution. One of the greatest obstacles we are facing in the delivery of inclusive education is the shortage of therapists. One of the solvable bottlenecks is the delay in recognising foreign qualifications. It is mentioned in the programme for Government that we are going to try to fast-track the recognition of qualifications. The issue is that while CORU's published timeline states recognition will take four months, I have met professionals in my area who have waited 12 months, 18 months and nearly two years to have the qualification they received in the UK recognised. I welcome that the review calls for investment in professional learning but we also need urgent reform of what is blocking these people's qualifications from being recognised. If people are short a single module because they qualified in the UK, let us call a national panel of our country's specialists, hold the event in the National Conference Centre, deliver the module, test it and qualify them fast. This is a crisis. Let us treat it like one. Let us apply a Covid-level response. These professionals are already on the critical skills list. Let us let them get the critical work. The children and parents cannot wait any longer. I would love if the Minister of State would look at this issue.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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Special education is one area where we can see a lack of action and a chronic lack of supports for children with needs. On the publication of the EPSEN review, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, rightly noted that special education should be inclusive, equitable and, more important, responsive to the needs of all children. Unfortunately, what we have now is a system that is far from being inclusive. It is, unfortunately, discriminatory. It is not in any way equitable. Rather, it is deeply inequitable in its funding and resource allocations. Offaly School of Special Education in my constituency is crying out for new accommodation. It is shameful to see what is happening in that school in terms of the lack of therapy supports for children, including the occupational therapy and speech therapy that children so badly need. What is the point of talking about the review's recommendations here and considering bringing all school-age children under a single piece of legislation if we are not going to listen to Offaly School of Special Education and other special schools around this State that need urgent assistance and need to ensure therapists are in place?

Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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Twenty-one years passed between the Act being passed and the report being published. We need timelines and they need to be speeded up. We need the use of data for proper forward planning and multi-annual funding to ensure services reach the children who need them most. I welcome the publication of the report. I suggest a review period of two or three years in future to keep on top of the complexities and the urgency. Student support plans are very welcome. Full inclusion and the change in language will bring out the best in all children.

I draw particular attention to sections 7 and 9 of the report, on the importance of transitions from primary to secondary and so on, and the importance of well-being supports and mental health services. These are areas that could be delivered in the short term, including, for example, nurture rooms.

I have given details of local projects in County Meath to the clerk to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters. Supporting successful local initiatives that can be funded in the short to medium term must be a priority. I look forward to working with the Minister and the Minister of State to expedite that.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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We all know that when a child presents with special needs and needs special assistance, it places a massive burden on his or her parents. The parents would prefer to see something wrong with themselves rather than their child. The Minister of State and I know that we do not need reports. We need funding. We need more specialist teachers and places and we need to speed up the assessment of need process because early intervention is paramount when dealing with these children. It needs to be addressed at as young as possible.

Kerry seems to be very hit very badly. I am sure we all get representations. The Minister of State knows the story. I am not saying anything much about the report because we do not need it. What we need is action. I am depending on the Minister of State to carry out that action as Minister with this portfolio. I am asking him to do his best as I know he will.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all the Members for their contributions. The report was published last week and is before the House this week, which shows the urgency with which the Government treats the issue of special education. The one thing I am always encouraged by is the depth of knowledge of Members of the House about special education and the challenges being faced by families and I compliment them on that. I urge them to continue that because there is a sense of urgency and genuineness across all parties and none. There was a sense of urgency and genuineness in the contributions - not in a confrontational way but in a way that asked Government to ensure there is action. I have taken note of some of the issues and I will follow up as best I can because I believe this is one of the major issues facing us and we will be judged on how we address it.

The report gives us an opportunity to reflect, reassess and realign. It is not just a policy check point but is a reminder of the distance we have travelled over the past 20 years or so and the distance we must go to ensure we meet the needs that are out there. I was Chair of the Oireachtas education committee 20 years ago when the EPSEN Act was going through. At that time, people spoke about mainstreaming and policies we now accept are the norm. We must ensure the policies we are going to bring in will strengthen special education and ensure unmet need is met across communities.

We have listened to the lived experience of all stakeholders, particularly children and young people in reaching the recommendations. More than two decades ago, the EPSEN Act outlined a clear vision. This vision had ambition and was forward thinking and rooted in the principle that every child regardless of his or her ability had a right to a quality education and an inclusive setting where possible. The overall vision has not changed. The review and the contributions of Members today make clear that our system has not fully delivered on this. There are clear steps that can be taken to address this. Some of the welcome policy recommendations are already in progress and work is under way to publish the implementation plan for the remaining recommendations before year end. I am giving an undertaking that we will work with stakeholders to ensure we have an implementation plan for the report.

While the work of SNAs is greatly valued by students, parents and teaching staff, as evidenced by the EPSEN survey and focus group response, the role has not been consistently understood or interpreted. The role of SNA was developed over 20 or 25 years ago. SNAs have become an integral and valued part of our education system. When public representatives from across the House visit special classes or schools, they see the work being done by SNAs in collaboration with all the other stakeholders in the education system. To that end, the SNA assistance workforce development unit was established in December 2022 within the Department. It brings a strategic approach to special needs assistant policy development with the objective of developing an enhanced SNA service that delivers the best care to students with significant care needs in our schools. The Department has begun on the first SNA workforce development plan with a scheduled completion date of September 2025. Work on this project is nearing completion and will be a welcome step forward with regard to the role of the SNA in our education system.

Inclusive Education Ireland is engaging with Technical Support Instruments, a European Commission programme that will provide a pathway towards inclusive education. In its response, the NCSE's policy advice, the Department has recognised that the advice is consistent with Ireland's obligation under the UNCRPD. The Department has also identified a number of existing and planned initiatives that provide a pathway to inclusion.

To assist with further development of inclusive education and anticipating a report in the NCSE policy advice, the Department's special education section applied for funding in 2022 to the EU, which manages the EU's Technical Support Instruments programme. This programme will enable member states to apply for support in managing large-scale system reforms. The application was successful and €500,000 has been sanctioned in consultation support to assist in shaping the Department's response to policy advice.

A number of issues were raised regarding how families and students are engaging with the challenges that are there. A disability section has been set up in the Department of the Taoiseach while the Cabinet committee on disability meets regularly and has been one of the committees that has met most often since the formation of the Government to develop policy. We are bringing therapists into special schools starting in September 2025. It will involve occupational therapists and speech and language therapists. We must ensure we look at other therapists as well such as those involved in music therapy and behavioural therapists. They are hugely important.

There have been a number of Private Members' motions and statements on special education. I know all Members are sincere about the issues they raised. We have a long way to go and we have travelled a long way with regard to special education. The report underlines two issues. One concerns the legislative changes we need. That will take some time to ensure we deliver them properly. The other issue is policy change. Many policies are being looked at in terms of how we will have the most inclusive education system. We pride ourselves on education. Ireland Inc. has always supported education, and we have always supported education. We are endeavouring to ensure that we have the best possible education system.

The review of the common application pilot is under way. Many have spoken, including some Members today, of families having to apply for multiple schools for their child. We want to make sure that we have that in place and that it is something that will alleviate the burden for families. As I said, there are specific times for families with additional needs, first when they go to pre-school, then to primary school and post-primary school and then beyond education. We will have to make sure that systems and policies are in place, backed up with resources.

The Government, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I are hugely committed to special education. We have had numerous meetings. We meet on a weekly basis on school places and on making sure we have appropriate places for children into the next school year. We are desperately committed on it. This is the whole-of-government and a huge amount of time has been spent in the last while to make sure we have the best possible system.

There are a number of other issues. On the summer programme, this is going on in some schools this week or next week. I compliment all the schools that have taken on the summer programme, which has provided places for over 56,000 children this year. That is welcome.

There are other issues and if I had the time I could talk for another hour and a half on this and I probably would not get beyond the tip of the iceberg. All I will say is that the senior Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I are extremely committed to the project. We welcome the report. It is a blueprint for how we will go forward. We will be judged on how we implement the report. We intend to bring that forward as early as possible this year.