Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I know the Minister of State is aware of the issue in St. Mochta’s National School and the two special classes. First and foremost, we should express our concern for the parents and children involved in this situation.

St. Mochta’s agreed to open up two classes after long discussions and much dialogue with the NCSE - one in temporary accommodation in the library and the other in December when two modular classes were to be delivered. The principal then informed the parents they needed to make the NCSE aware of their children, which all parents did. They were issued letters of eligibility by the NCSE. In fact, one parent had already done so around October 2024. The principal and patron were told they would be exempt from the 19 February deadline that was imposed with regard to special classes for 2025. Unfortunately, they got an email last Friday afternoon, the last day of school, from the NCSE saying that 11 of those 12 places have been allocated, but not one of those allocations had been given to those six students who are in St. Mochta’s school, including that one child who had a letter from October 2024. We have 17 to 18 parents who are deeply worried about how this is going. We need clarification from the NCSE as to how it will resolve this for all of those parents. Every child, as we have always said, deserves a place.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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To clarify, St. Mochta’s school in Clonsilla has 900 to 1,000 students. The management agreed to take on a huge cohort under pressure of school places in Dublin West. Six pupils enrolled in that school have approval from the NCSE for special or autism class provision, but they were not on the list that was sent to the school last Friday. We have a bizarre situation where these parents would not have autism classes in the school that they actually attend. That has to be rectified. We do not know how this happened because at a meeting that was convened the other night, the management of the school told TDs that they had verbal approval from the NCSE that these parents would be facilitated. It makes sense because the classes are not even ready yet. It would make sense to remain where they are and then move in when the classes are ready. There is very little time to raise this. We are now in that situation. The parents would have had legitimate expectations from the NCSE that they would receive a placement in the special classes when they opened, and that was the understanding of the principals.

I spoke to parents this morning in Dublin 15 who still do not have school places. One parent has twins and another was campaigning with us last year. We still have a crisis of school places.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State for attending. I understand the NCSE is attempting address the crisis we have for places in special classes, and I know it is acting quickly. However, the way it has acted in the context of St. Mochta’s is not the right solution. St. Mochta’s has agreed to open two special classes - two ASD classes - in September for 12 students. It currently has six students on its books attending the school, each of whom is known to the NCSE. They also have letters with the clear recommendation they should be in an ASD class attached to a mainstream school. The school has now been allocated 11 students – every one of those deserves a place as well – but if the six students who are in St. Mochta’s have to wait until those 11 students have moved on through the system, they will never receive a place in a special class in St. Mochta’s because the new students are all across the age groups. They are from junior infants all the way up to fourth class. The 12 new students - the students St. Mochta’s has given the names for – are junior infants and senior infants students. They are just starting their time in St. Mochta’s.

Every child in Dublin 15 deserves an appropriate place in the right school. We can address and fix this in St. Mochta’s. It is important that the Department and the NCSE engage with the school and resolve this.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this issue, and I fully accept and understand the genuineness with which it is raised. I fully accept the Deputies' bona fides in respect of this issue.

The Government is fully committed to supporting all children with additional needs to achieve their full potential. It is a core priority of the work of the Department of education that every child should receive a school place that meets their needs. There is a significant body of work being undertaken to ensure that this is the case. This includes the creation of more than 2,000 new special school classes in mainstream schools and 16 new special schools established since 2019. Both the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I meet with Department of education officials and the NCSE on a weekly basis to track the progress of the provision of special classes and special school placements.

An additional 399 new special education classes have been sanctioned for this school year. Of these, 287 are at primary level and 112 are at post-primary level. These will be added to the existing 3,335 special classes nationwide, increasing the number of special classes by 103% since 2020. In addition, I also directed a school in County Kildare to open two new special classes under section 37A of the Education Act 1998. In total, therefore, from the next academic year, there will be more than 3,700 special classes and 129 special schools in operation throughout the country.

In recent years, the NCSE has advised the Department that after it had sanctioned new special classes, some of the children being offered places in these new special classes were not known to the NCSE. This was having a significant impact on the NCSE's ability to forward plan for the provision of new special classes. To address this issue, the Department of education issued a circular to all schools in October 2024 advising that parents of children seeking special classes or special school places for the 2025-2026 school year would need to notify the NCSE by 1 February. Schools were also asked to ensure that parents of children with special educational needs in mainstream classes who may require a special class were aware of the need to register with the NCSE by 1 February. This circular letter was developed after consultation with school management bodies, special education advocacy groups and the National Parents Council. The NCSE has advised that just under 3,300 valid notifications were received by mid-February last via their new parent notification system. The priority for the NCSE and for the Department has been to ensure that these children and young people are prioritised for enrolment in special classes and in special schools.

Sixteen new special classes have been sanctioned by the NCSE in schools in the Dublin 15 local school planning area for the coming school year. These are part of the overall 98 new special classes being provided across schools in Dublin. This is the single largest provision of new special classes in both Dublin 15 and across Dublin. Two of these new special classes have been sanctioned in St. Mochta’s in Dublin 15. As the Deputies know, this is a large primary school serving the needs of the community in Clonsilla and the surrounding areas.

These are the first special classes to be established at this school and they have been warmly welcomed by all in the local community. I commend the school leadership, the board of management and the school patrons on working closely with the NCSE and my Department to provide these much-needed classes. Regarding the admission of children into the new special classes, the NCSE continues to work closely with the school to try to progress the matters. The Deputies here, as well as Deputy Emer Currie and the Minister, Deputy Chambers, have been highlighting the issue.

As highlighted by the Deputies, an issue has arisen where students already enrolled in mainstream classes in the school but who may require a special class place were brought to the attention of the NCSE after the 1 February timeline.

I can confirm that the Department and the NCSE are making arrangements to meet the school and the school patron bodies today on this matter. I will refer to other matters in my supplementary response.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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The last paragraph is slightly worrying because in the presentation that was given to us on Monday evening by the principal and the patron of the school, it was stated that the SENO gave a verbal commitment to the school that the deadline of 19 February would be waived for pupils in St. Mochta’s as classes were not sanctioned on this date. The principal met with all parents on 5 March 2025 to advise the parents of the next steps and share commitments from the SENO to waive the deadline of 19 February. All parents contacted the SENO and received eligibility letters from the SENO on dates ranging from 14 March to 7 April 2025, and all parents had a legitimate expectation that they would be offered a place. We are unsure about where the truth lies. There are two different versions of what is going on and that needs to be resolved.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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I am glad a meeting is taking place today and, hopefully, things can be resolved. However, I would be extremely concerned if other parents were offered these places and would then have to be told they do not have alternatives. It is a real problem situation. The issue is that, according to the school, it did not have sanction for these two classes by the February deadline and, therefore, it only got the sanction in April and there was an agreement that the February deadline would be waived. That is what we have been told. Hopefully, this can be addressed at the meeting. I repeat that it is good that 16 classes are sanctioned for Dublin 15 but while that sounds like a lot, when we take in the population of the area and the age profile, it is not. We need those classes opened as soon as possible. We still have 12 children waiting for Danu places since last year.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I noticed that in the Minister of State’s reply, there is a focus on the 1 February deadline. As colleagues have said, there were no plans to open an ASD class in St. Mochta’s on 1 February and the only agreement on that opening came in April. In April, when the school did agree to open these two classes, it received a verbal agreement that the deadline would be waived for the six children who were in St. Mochta’s. A commitment was given and that commitment has to be realised and fulfilled. I am glad a meeting is taking place. There is now an opportunity to make sure that the six children in St. Mochta’s are able to avail of an appropriate school place and get the support they deserve within the school.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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There is a meeting taking place today with the school and school patrons to try to resolve the issue. Without putting words in anybody's mouth, I know the school authorities and the Department have been in contact and they will have a meeting today. Let us see what happens with that. I would be only too delighted to bring back any information to the Deputies by email or otherwise when we have that information to hand. I accept the seriousness of the issue the Deputies have raised, and there are a number of other issues across Dublin 15 regarding school places and school classes.

There is one thing that I would ask the Deputies. The new circular has set 1 October 2025 as the date for the 2026 school year. I ask the Deputies to get the message out there that we need the information early in the school year in order to plan properly, so we are not in a situation next year where we are heading into the school holidays and do not have places. We need the information earlier. All of the Deputies are working on the ground and know the families. I ask them to get the message out there that the NCSE has to be notified of the information early so we can carry out proper planning and ensure that families are not in a stressful position.

To go back to the issue of St. Mochta’s, a meeting is taking place today. I give an undertaking that, subsequent to that meeting, we will keep all the Deputies informed of how things are progressing.