Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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78. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children identified by the NCSE by the February deadline who have yet to be offered a school place for September 2025; the total number of children now with a recommendation for a special class or special school place who have not been offered a school place for September; to outline her efforts to ensure that all children with additional educational needs will have a physical school place and the necessary SET, SNA and other resources and supports in place for September; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40610/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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Will the Minister tell the House the number of children who were identified by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, by the February deadline and are yet to be offered a school place for September 2025? What is the total number of children now with a recommendation for a special class or special school place who have not been offered a school place for September? Will the Minister outline her efforts to ensure all children with additional educational needs will have a physical school place and the necessary special education teacher, SET, special needs assistant, SNA, and other resources and supports in place for September and will she make a statement on the matter?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The NCSE is the national agency with responsibility for the provision of special education places. This year, the NCSE has sanctioned 407 new special classes for the coming school year, bringing to 3,742 the number of special classes in our schools. There are new classes in every county in Ireland and, with the number of special classes doubling in the last five years, this now means that there are more classes than ever ensuring greater numbers of children can access places, most importantly, in their local schools. Combined with 300 new special school places, this brings to 2,700 the number of new school places for children with special educational needs.

The additional capacity, together with the movement of children across existing classes, means that my Department and NCSE have created more capacity than required for the children known to the NCSE by the deadline of February 2025. The NCSE has advised me that outside Dublin all children known to it by the February deadline, who require a special class placement at primary and post-primary level have received a place. The NCSE is working intensively with the parents of a small number of children in the Dublin area who are seeking a special class or special school placement, and with the schools concerned to finalise the arrangements for the 2025-2026 school year.

In addition, the NCSE is working closely with parents who came forward after the February deadline to support them into available class placements. It will always be the case, no matter what deadline is put in place, that there will be children who do not meet it. We are therefore working actively to make sure those children have a place identified for them.

Asking parents to engage early with the NCSE when seeking a special placement has enhanced the NCSE’s capacity to plan and make timely provision in local areas. Therefore, for the 2026-2027 school year we are asking families to engage by 1 October 2025 - four months earlier than this year - to support this planning further and allow the NCSE to sanction classes much quicker. The NCSE will be actively communicating this requirement nationally.

An additional 768 teaching and 1,600 SNA posts were provided in budget 2025 to support schools in this endeavour and all schools have been notified of their allocations for the coming school year.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister will guess what my supplementary question is going to be. It will be the same as my initial question. It will be the same question that was put to John Kearney, the head of the NCSE, at the committee's meeting on 2 July, to the Minister of State at the committee's meeting on 18 June and to the Minister at the committee's meeting on 12 June and in the Dáil on the same day during Question Time. The Minister referred to 92% of the 3,275. What is the number? I recognise that progress is being made, but what is the small number for Dublin? In addition, what was the number post February? I can identify - I will raise this in the form of a further supplementary- children who have been identified and who were given recommendations post February.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Since we last spoke at the committee, significant progress has been made. Every week, the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and I, meet with the NCSE to make sure that more places are being offered. Just under 3,300, as I said previously, were notified before the February deadline. The number after that, to be honest, is changing. Every week, more children are coming to the attention of the NCSE. In the context of the February deadline, the majority of the children involved are being supported in placements in mainstream schools, with extra support, special classes or special schools, as necessary. Outside Dublin, places have been identified for children. A small number of allocations are still being made in the context of the enrolment process. Within Dublin, a very small number of special classes and special school places are being worked through. The number changes every time we speak. What I can say is that there are more places than there is need. That has been identified. That includes those who are coming forward. Our intention is that by September, every child will know where they are going and will have a place. That is what is actively being worked on.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I am frustrated on my behalf, as a public representative, and on behalf of parents who are waiting to places for their children. They feel like they are being gaslit because the figures are not being spelled out. They do not know where they stand in terms of the system. It feels like a co-ordinated omertà in the context of the failure to release those figures.

There are a number of legal cases against the State regarding children not being provided for. Not all of those cases relate to Dublin. The idea that everyone outside Dublin has been accommodated is not a fair reflection of the situation. The Minister might comment on that aspect.

An issue relating to Owenbeg National School in Sligo has been raised with the Minister on a number of occasions. A second class at the school was suppressed on the basis of the NCSE's assessment that there was no need for it. In fact, there are three children who received recommendations post February and a fourth child who really would benefit from a place in a special class. Will that be delivered by September?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I utterly reject the suggestion that parents are being gaslit. There has never been as much engagement with parents through the NSCE to support them. I accept that a small number of children still do not have their places. We are working on that. We will work all summer to make sure they have their places allocated to them. Parents and schools are being engaged with throughout all of this. The Department and the NCSE are working with schools. I acknowledge the many schools that are providing additional places, classrooms and capacity, even as we speak. The 400 new classes have now become 407. It is absolutely the case that in some areas where schools have been sanctioned for perhaps two classrooms, it is now one or even one classroom and it is not needed. That is simply on the basis that, in the context of the overall level need, a decision was taken that it was not necessary. That is not to say that next year a school might not be approved and, obviously, the classroom would open.

It is important that we are able to plan. That is why the deadline is there. It does not mean that children outside of the deadline are going to be excluded. If we have to put a structure in place to make sure that we have a good sense of exactly what the need is, where children should be and where their local schools are, however, that is the most important thing outside of all of this. We will be working all summer. The NCSE is working over the summer to make sure that every child will have their place for September.