Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

Where do I start?

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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At the beginning, Deputy.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I could not say I was shocked but I was not particularly happy, obviously, when I saw the Government's response to this. This is not the first time the Minister of State and I have had a conversation, never mind the legislation, on the issues regarding those seeking places for their children, and the rights of those children, whether in primary or secondary school. I would state quite explicitly that we are very far from a solution.

In fairness to me and to the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, which I would pay great tribute to and which brought all its wherewithal to bear, some of the questions that have been presented by the Government as an answer to this would have already been considered by us beforehand. Where the idea for this particular Bill came from was, I think, the education committee. I was dealing with a number of stakeholders, including the IPPN. In fairness, the IPPN - I think it was Mr. Páiric Clerkin - was back in front of the Oireachtas committee on education in July of this year. I will read a bit of the IPPN's opening statement.

The current limitation whereby schools only have one year lead-in time to manage admissions is very problematic in terms of forward planning.

Call to action: IPPN has called for a two-year lead-in, which would give NCSE, school boards, parents and staff sufficient time to make provision for children with SEN. The Admissions Act needs to be amended to facilitate this.

The new approach to approval by NCSE of entitlement to a place in a special class streamlines the process considerably. Once capacity is fully in place, this will be welcomed by schools and parents alike.

That is it in a very straightforward sense. When I first heard this idea, it made absolute sense. The parents of sixth class students with special educational needs will generally apply to secondary schools. They do that around October or November of the year before their child is due to start secondary school. A number of Deputies have had phone calls around these sorts of issues again this year, like every other year. In addition, children who have special educational needs heading into primary schools from créche or home face the same need to apply in the October or November of the year before they start school. The way the system is set up, schools never know how many children with special educational needs are going to apply and they regularly struggle to meet the demand for places because they have less than one year to prepare for those coming in. We know the issues that exist around the interaction with the NCSE. Some work has been done in relation to SENOs. However, we also know that where children do not have an assessment of need, the school cannot necessarily determine whether the child is to go into a special class or into mainstream education or what the circumstances and situations are for special schools. The idea of this, no more than what the Minister of State is doing having families contact the NCSE directly, is to just have a longer run-in. That is all we are looking for. Anything regarding issues that there may have been with the Act could have very easily been dealt with on Committee and Report Stages. I am disappointed this is the case.

I thank the Minister of State for being here so we can at least debate this set of circumstances. This has come from educators. This is not a notion I thought up on my own. It makes complete sense. I asked a number of educationalists and stakeholders who were before the committee what the one thing is that would make a difference. They said a two-year lead-in. That is what we are talking about. I get the Minister of State is in a roundabout way trying to deal with that. I said to him previously that the NCSE needed to look at the cases it can look at earlier than a year beforehand. I am really disappointed where this is going. We get it. In a new departure for the 2026-27 academic year, parents must first complete the online form before the 1 October deadline to receive an eligibility letter to apply for NCSE school admissions for special classes or special school. The letter is then used to apply for a place in a specific school. If the child already has an eligibility letter not dated, one can be obtained from a local SENO. Schools have specific admission policies with eligibility and selection criteria based on NCSE guidance. All this would need to happen beforehand. I do not see any difficulty for parents being able to make this application process, particularly with the school, at an earlier stage. That allows for an awful lot of the preparatory work to be done, including even some of this . It makes complete sense. I will be very interested in the Minister of State's reason for the Government being utterly opposed to this. We will then be able to have an interaction afterwards on it.

The Government's amendment states: "a child's right to education is enshrined in the Constitution and, under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, must be accessible on an equal basis with others in the community in which they live" so that education "must be accessible on an equal basis with others in the community in which they live". However, the exact wording from the convention is: "on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live". The objective of this Bill is to promote equal inclusive education in accordance with the State's Constitution and the UNCRPD. The Minister of State and others have to accept that I did not set out to undermine anybody's rights. We also have to accept the reality that it is about facilitating the families of those with disabilities and facilitating those children with disabilities who are being impacted at this point in time. The fact is we need to level the playing field. I do not see anything wrong in this.

I initiated this because I believe it helps create a society based on tolerance, inclusion and social justice. It prevents children with disabilities from being isolated and excluded and enables them to participate in community life alongside everyone else. Through learning and playing together, children with and without disabilities and their teachers and parents can more easily understand and accept each other. Furthermore, we are now talking about in-school therapies and ensuring we have those supports where the need is, which is where the children are. We heard at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters recently where, in fairness, there was a lot of discussion on best practice in the likes of Portugal and Finland and the idea of facilitating the children who can be in mainstream education with all those supports. As much as I support the idea of in-school therapies in the 45 special schools as a starting point, which needs to be ramped up, there will be a short-term issue. That will be on the basis that parents who cannot get therapies and who live in the vicinity of these special schools are under severe pressure will all apply for that. We will need a ramping-up job done.

As much as I am disappointed and annoyed by this legislation, I am not wedded to this it or any other Bill. If I see a layout and that we are moving in the correct direction and trajectory, I will be only too delighted to support that. Even as a constituency TD and as a father of a child with needs, I want people to be facilitated. I do not want people coming into me on the basis they cannot get the rights for their children. That is not anything I want.

The Bill increases the application timeframe for admission to special school places to two years, with the objective that this will provide parents with sufficient time to collate any documentation that a school may request as part of its application process, in particular any assessments in relation to the applicant student with special educational needs.

I could go on. I assume the Minister of State is going to speak about how he is going to attempt to facilitate the NCSE process or any other processes. We may be talking about transition from early learning centres into primary school, where we have children who have been assessed and require access to the access and inclusion model, AIM. They then have to start a rigamarole again. We need to have a better system. As opposed to parents needing to make applications to the NCSE, if the system worked correctly, we would already have all that information. It is not like the children are arriving from Mars, particularly with regard to secondary school. They are in the system, yet the system has to be told about them again. We really need to get our act together on that. It does not make any sense whatsoever.

The amendment notes the Government will improve communication and outreach to parents, streamline the process by which parents apply for specialist school places, reducing the burden on them and improving the timelines and ensure that available capacity across schools is maximised. That is exactly what I am attempting to do. The parents of students with disabilities should be seen as partners in inclusive education provision that accords with the UN recommendations in respect of Article 24 of the UNCRPD and families should be consulted with and involved at every stage. Parents are going to give out about the lack of communication and about how, at times, they do not have a point person to talk to. We could all improve the circumstances by allowing a longer lead-in.

The amendment further states "that this proposed legislation dates from 2024 and does not have regard to the progress being made by the Department of Education and Youth and the NCSE in introducing new measures to support forward planning for the 2026/27 school year".

We have already discussed what that entails. The Bill was initiated on 10 July 2024. I have engaged with the Minister of State on the Department's plans and have no issue with them. I want further forward planning. I want a longer running time. We have to streamline the system. This allows for parents to be in place, for schools to be partners and for the NCSE and SENOs to have a greater level of time to collate the necessary documentation. I would like to think we can get to a place where all this would happen in a far more seamless way, but we are far from there at the minute.

The amendment further notes that the legislation could have significant and negative impacts on a number of groups that have not been properly considered. It goes on to state that the proposed legislation may have an impact on the families of children and young people with special educational needs moving into an area within two years of seeking a school place, in particular families that are renting. It also refers to impact the proposed legislation may have on families, children and young people with special educational needs who receive a diagnosis and professional recommendation within two years of seeking a school place, in particular young children entering primary school.

As I said, I did not do this on my own. It was not my idea. The IPPN saw the absolute necessity for the Bill. Beyond that, I went to the OPLA. We are always told to go to it and not draft legislation on our own. As I said, on that basis I am doubly surprised that we are having this type of interaction. It is an example of inequality to guarantee in equal measure all things to all people. Legislation may treat groups of people differently if the Oireachtas believes that the group justifiably and rationally needs to be treated differently.

I accept there will always be people who move into an area at the last minute and we will have to have a facility to deal with that. I do not see the Bill as disrespecting that. Those circumstances arise and we have always needed to address that. I, more than anyone, have spoken about the need for flexibility in all systems, but the majority of parents and children know the schools they are going to apply to so it makes absolute sense that the school would know that they are looking to go there. We are talking about kids with special educational needs. We know there is a hell of a lot of work to do from an administrative point of view and beyond that to make sure that the supports are in place and all the ducks are in a row. I am very interested in what the Minister of State has to say.

The amendment states that the lack of a definition of "special educational needs" in the proposed legislation and the uncertainty of the legislation applies to all estimated 25% of students with special educational needs who may seek a mainstream special class or special school. The proposed legislation lacks a definition of special educational needs as it followed the drafting style adopted in the regulations, which were drafted by the Office of the Attorney General of neglecting to define terms already defined in the parent Act, namely, the Education Act 1998. Other terms such as "admissions policy" and "patron" are also not defined in the regulations but are defined in section 2 of the Education Act 1998. There is more, but I await the Minister of State's answer.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I move:

To delete all words after "That" and substitute with the following: "Dáil Éireann declines to give the Education (Amendment) Bill 2024 a second reading consequent on Dáil Éireann's passage of the following motion on 16th October, 2025:

notes that:

— a child's right to education is enshrined in the Constitution and, under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, must be accessible on an equal basis with others in the community in which they live; and

— the Government is committed to ensuring that each child with a special educational need has an appropriate school place, in line with their Constitutional right and Programme for Government commitments;

notes that the Government will:

— progress work on the development of a more inclusive education system for children with special education needs by supporting them to attend their local school;

— continue to expand the number of special school places, special classes and special education teaching hours as required across the state;

— improve communication and outreach to parents of children with special educational needs to streamline the process by which parents apply for specialist school places, reducing the burden on them and improving the timelines, including the introduction of a common application procedure;

— continue to increase investment into the area of special education to ensure that every child can reach their full potential;

— ensure that available capacity across schools is maximised to make provision for children with special education needs; and

— prioritise school building projects delivering additional capacity for special classes and at special schools;

further notes:

— the continued significant state investment of €2.9 billion this year for supporting the provision of special education, a 48 per cent increase since 2020;

— the total allocation in Budget 2026 to provide over €3 billion in funding for special education next year, including the provision of up to 3,000 new special class and special school places, over 1,700 new special needs assistants and 860 new special education teachers;

— 97 per cent of all children and young people enrolled in schools, including the majority of children and young people with special educational needs, are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers;

— the strategic initiatives introduced to provide for the continued accelerated delivery of special class places in mainstream schools and special school places with the number of special classes having doubled over the last five years and 16 new special schools being established;

— over 3,700 special classes have been made available across the country for the 2025/26 school year ensuring that children can continue to access a special class in their local area avoiding the need for long distance travel;

— the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) confirm that over 800 vacant places remain in special classes in primary and post-primary schools across the country at the start of this school year 2025/2026;

— Budget 2026 provides funding for teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to support the provision of another 3,000 special class and special school places, this continues the accelerated delivery of special education places to ensure sufficient capacity is provided each year and children and young people have an appropriate place; and

— the commitment to prioritise investment in special education and school places as part of €7.55 billion in National Development Plan capital funding for 2026-2030;

further notes:

— that this proposed legislation dates from 2024 and does not have regard to the progress being made by the Department of Education and Youth and the NCSE in introducing new measures to support forward planning for the 2026/27 school year which brings forward the date of notification and will see the majority of new special classes sanctioned by 31st December, 2025 thereby providing earlier clarity for families;

— the streamlining of funding to ensure schools can access funding for repurposing accommodation;

— the significant investment in the expansion of staffing at the NCSE to assist families of children with special educational needs in all aspects of their educational journey, including accessing a placement appropriate to their needs;

— the significant level of funding and supports being provided to schools to deliver accommodation for special classes including school building projects, the repurposing of available rooms, and the provision of modular accommodation;

— the commitment in the Programme for Government to introduce a nationwide common application system for school admissions, which has the potential to be a game-changer for students and parents;

— the progress which has been made in introducing a common application system, including a new pilot single application for admission to post-primary schools, including admission to post-primary special classes, being rolled out by the Department this year across five areas;

— the enactment of the Education (Admissions to Schools) Act 2018 which banned historical waiting lists, thus ensuring parents who move to a new area, or parents who rent, are not disadvantaged;

— that this legislation could have a significant and negative impact on a number of groups, and that this has not been properly considered;

— the impact that this proposed legislation may have on families of children and young people with special educational needs moving into an area within two years of seeking a school place, in particular families that are renting;

— the impact that this proposed legislation may have on families of children and young people with special educational needs who receive a diagnosis and professional recommendation within two years of seeking a school place, in particular young children entering primary school;

— the lack of a definition of special educational needs in the proposed legislation and the uncertainty if the legislation applies to all of the estimated 25 per cent of students with a special educational need who may be seeking a mainstream, special class or special schools;

— while the proposed legislation allows for children and young people with special educational needs to apply for admission up to two years in advance, it is silent in terms of the actual timelines for schools making decision on admission and therefore it is not clear that the legislation will achieve its aim of providing earlier clarity for parents;

— that significant further work on this proposal would be required, including significant consultation with schools and parents, before such a proposal could be considered again;

— the Government have published a review of the EPSEN Act 2004, which comprised of over 28,000 responses to online surveys, including 900 responses from children and young people to an innovative easy access survey, and participation in focus groups by 91 adults and 94 students and young people from mainstream, special and Irish medium schools, as well as adults who had left school;

— that an implementation plan is being developed and will be published before the end of the year, with changes to existing legislation, policy, and practice under consideration; and

— declines to give the Bill a second stage reading for the reasons stated.".

I welcome the opportunity to address the Dáil on the proposed legislation. I accept, totally and absolutely, the sincerity of Deputy Ó Murchú and the Opposition who are proposing this new legislative provision. I have worked with them across the House over the past number of years. I look forward to co-operation because we do not all have monopolies on wisdom on any issues that arise. I am open to any proposals that come to me, but unfortunately I cannot, on this occasion, accept the Bill. I will outline a few reasons.

I understand and support the desire of Sinn Féin for us to do more to support the families of children and young people with additional needs to access appropriate school places in a timely manner. I know how important it is for families to secure appropriate school places for their children. Since taking up my position as Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion, a number of measures have been introduced to alleviate the stress and uncertainty many families and advocacy groups have relayed to me in my role as Minister of State, my time as Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters and my time as a public representative.

However, having studied the proposed legislative changes and considered the new measures being proposed and processed by my Department and the NCSE in regard to these issues, I wish to inform the House that the Government will arrange to table a reasonable amendment to the Bill. I ask the House to support our view that the Bill should not get a Second Stage reading.

In my opening statement, I will outline the current legislative provisions in terms of admissions to schools, our concerns in relation to the proposed legislation, as it is worded, and some important work that is being progressed on the new common application system for school admissions. In my closing statement, I might provide a general update on the work of the Department and the NCSE on the forward planning of the new special classes and special schools provision for the next school year, 2026-27, and beyond.

Deputies may recall the significant amount of engagement and work that went into the reform of the school admissions system in this country a few short years ago. The legal position in regard to admissions to schools is clearly set out in the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 and related regulations. These were hugely reforming and progressive items of legislation at the time. In 2018, legislation banned historic school waiting lists, thus ensuring parents who moved to an area or who rent are not disadvantaged.

Schools can decide how to run their admissions policies and processes as long as they do not begin accepting applications for admission for the school year concerned before 1 October of the previous year. The advantage of having a clear starting date is that parents know with certainty that schools will not start accepting applications before this key date, but once the date arrives they are alert to the possibility of schools in which they are interested in commencing their admissions policies. The earliest date is set as 1 October for schools to start their admissions policies. Since 2020, this has become a well-known national date on which schools can start undertaking the admissions process for the following September. This timeline provides for consistency across the entire school system.

I understand the purpose of the proposed legislation is to allow for the families of children with additional needs to make applications for school places two years before the child would ordinarily be attending the new school. The Bill seeks to achieve this by amending section 63(4) of the admissions Act by introducing a new provision to enable schools to commence accepting applications for admission for children with additional needs entering mainstream on a different date to the application for mainstream school. The Bill does not go into much further detail beyond this point.

Given this lack of clarity and further details in the proposed legislative changes, I and the Government have a number of concerns about the proposed legislation. The Bill does not seek to define the term "special educational needs" and, therefore, it is read to refer to all children with special educational needs enrolled in schools. Previous estimates have suggested up to 25% of students in primary and post-primary schools have special educational needs. It is not clear, then, how the legislation might cater for admissions to mainstream classes made up of children and young people with special educational needs and other children and young people.

It is difficult to see how places could be allocated to children with special educational needs prior to others who would be in the same class, as other applicants would still be bound by the 1 October deadline in the year prior to the school intake. In order to ensure fairness, decisions on all applications would need to be made at the same time. It is difficult to see how any benefit could accrue to families or schools on this basis.

While the Bill provides for the families of children and young people with special educational needs to apply for admission up to two years in advance, it is silent in terms of the timelines for schools actually making decisions on admissions. Therefore, it is not clear that the Bill achieves its key aim of families having earlier clarity on what school their child will attend. The Bill could also have a direct impact on the families of children and young people with additional needs moving into an area, in particular families renting who have not had the opportunity to apply for admission up to two years in advance. A family who are renting may move into an area and find they are simply too late to apply for school place.

The Bill also impacts the families of children and young people with additional needs who receive a diagnosis or professional recommendation within two years of seeking a school place, in particular young people entering primary school.

It is also unclear how the legislation might deal with families of children and young people with special needs who may seek to move from mainstream to special classes or from special classes to special schools. Will these families have to apply and wait two years to make this move rather than possibly doing so in the next school year, as the current legislation allows for? Significant work on this proposal would be required, including significant consultation with schools and parents, before such a proposal could be considered again. I am not clear that the proposed legislation actually deals with more significant issues raised by families of children and young people with additional needs.

In addition to the need to have earlier clarity around special education provision, the main issue raised by parents of children and young people seeking a special class or special school place is the requirement to make a number of applications for admission to schools. The programme for Government includes a commitment to introduce a nationwide common application system for schools admission, which has the potential to be a game-changer for students and their families. A new pilot single application for admission to post-primary schools, including admission to post-primary special classes, is currently being rolled out by my Department. The new pilot has been introduced across five areas, namely, Athenry, Celbridge, Clonakilty, Greystones and Tullamore. In addition, the common application trial for admissions to special classes among some primary schools in the Dublin 15 area continues to be supported by the National Council for Special Education and is being continued for a second year. It is important that we build on these pilot initiatives and roll out a national common application system as soon as possible. This would have a very significant positive impact for families of children and young people with special educational needs.

On the National Council for Special Education and local supports for families, while we wait for a national common application system, it is important that we continue to support and provide guidance to families at local level. The National Council for Special Education has expanded and restructured, and it is now providing support and services on a county basis. The number of special education organisers has almost doubled, to 120 nationwide, since the beginning of the last school year. These new teams and structures are in place now for over a year, and we must continue to see the positive impact this is having for families and schools at local level in terms of support and guidance. Both the senior Minister, Deputy Helen McEntee, and I continue to meet the National Council for Special Education and senior officials in the Department of Education each week in relation to special education provision. This is something that we started back in February after both of us were appointed to the Department, and we continue to monitor the development of the National Council for Special Education and its growing supports for families and schools.

In conclusion, I hope I have given the House some insights in terms of some of the concerns in relation to the proposed legislation, as currently drafted, and how we are working to provide a new common application system on schools admission which will address some of the concerns being raised by families of children and young people who may have to apply to multiple schools at present.

I would also like to stress that I am very open to considering practical solutions to help to ensure that we are providing more streamlined application processes and alleviating pressures on parents, particularly when it comes to special education. However, these solutions must not complicate matters for their families, but be in keeping with best practice and consider recent initiatives already delivered in this space. Reluctantly, therefore, I ask the House to decline to give this Bill a Second Reading.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank Sinn Féin very much for bringing forward this motion. It is a lot of common sense. Anything we can do in this House to make the transition into our formal education system easier for children with disabilities and their families, we should try to do. It would bring certainty and forward planning into that.

A year is a very short time. We say a year but, really, applications are made on 1 October to start the following year. Schools close for the summer. The poor principals are still working over that time. I know the structure that has been put in place with 1 October is not without its difficulties. I was contacted by a parent recently who wants to try to get two of her children into a school. She was told that she had missed the deadline of 1 October and that she would not be able to be issued with the letters she got. I did write and, thankfully, that has gone by. The difficulty is that I do not think that message has been communicated directly to special educational needs officers, SENOs, or to those on the ground or wherever it needs to be communicated because that parent was told "No". She was told no because she was late, but I spoke to the Minister for State and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, who assured me that of course people get diagnoses and things later and so they can apply later. We need to remember that. This motion would mean it could be anticipated two years in advance. If a child is in an early childhood education setting, they already know what their needs are if they have already got their diagnosis. Two years in advance would, therefore, be fantastic for those children. For the children I am talking about, however, that should have been communicated. That woman should not have had to contact her local TD to find out why the application was not accepted. The difficulty is that we are still hearing from families whose children do not have school place. I know the Minister of State is trying his best but, unfortunately, that is not translating into actual school places. There were a number of children as of 1 October who did not have a school place at all. I am glad to see that one young person whose parents met the Minister of State the last time we were talking about this in the House did start school this week, which I am delighted about. I will not name her because I do not have consent from her parents to say that. However, I did see on Instagram that she has started school, so I am delighted for her. However, there are still a number of young people who do not have a school place because a school building is not ready. If we knew two years in advance the number of children who were going to be applying to X school and whatever else, that would be plenty of time to build those buildings. As we all know, buildings do not pop up overnight. If that 1 October deadline was brought back a year, that would give building and forward planning and all that enough time so we would not be in this situation.

With regard to looking at parents and the pressures they are under, I reiterate that anything we can do to alleviate their struggles is what we should be doing. There are far too many young people who are struggling. For those children who do not have a school place, the amount of advocacy that their parents have to do on top of the care needs they have for their children puts enormous pressure on them. We need to be cognisant of the fact that nobody should have to contact their local TD to get their child into a school. I am shocked by it. I am a first-time TD. I am shocked that people have to resort to that and that they cannot, like every other child in our system, apply to a school, go in, fill out the form, whether it is online or whichever way it is done, and get a school place. That should be happening for children with additional needs but, unfortunately, it is not.

There is an issue with the common application system as well. I am uncertain. I know there are pilots and things like that going on. It is really important that we further that as far as we can and as quickly as we can. I want to give an example of schools being sanctioned but nothing happening. I mentioned several times previously Clogher Road Community College in my own constituency, which was sanctioned for a second classroom yet there is nothing there. If we had two years beforehand known exactly what was going on, that would already be built. It takes time to build those facilities.

I do not want to take up too much time because it is late in the day and the points have been made. It is a very practical proposal. I understand the reasons the Minister of State does not want to take them on board, and I accept that he has constraints in his role. Really, I hope that next year when we are here, there will not be one person as of 16 October 2026 who does not a have school place because the school is not built, the room is not sanctioned or the staff are not trained. On that point, if schools knew two years in advance that there were a number of children coming, they would have the opportunity for continuing professional development, CPD, for those staff members and to be able to recruit people who are going to work in those classes. We are putting schools under enormous pressure in that time period. They are trying to plan for next year in the year they are in. Every single day in school is a busy day, as we all know. If there were a little bit more time and support given for that, it would be better.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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I will now revert to the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I listened to both Deputies.

I acknowledge the complete sincerity of the work Deputy Ó Murchú is doing. Others must judge my character but I would like to think that I am open. I do not have a monopoly on wisdom but I have a monopoly on experience and want to make sure that we are doing the best we can.

I will outline a number of things we are doing. I outlined the Government's concern about the proposed legislation. I also outlined some work that has been done. In the closing statement, I want to provide a short update for the House on the ongoing work by both the Department of education and the NCSE in relation to forward planning for special education provision for the 2026-27 school year and beyond.

The legislation does not take into account progress being made on forward planning for special education. In 2024, the Department of education and the national council introduced a range of new measures to support forward planning for special classes and special school planning. The key element of this was the introduction of a requirement for parents of children and young people seeking a special class or school place to notify the NCSE. This measure ensured that the NCSE had a clearer picture of the local demand for special classes and special school places. Parents of children and young students seeking a special class or a special school place for the 2025-26 school year were asked to notify the NCSE by 1 February. For the 2026-27 school year, this timeline for parents to notify the NCSE was brought forward several months to 1 October 2025. Parents responded in significant numbers and the NCSE is now working to collate the overall number of children and young people seeking special classes or special school places for September 2026.

The new parent notification process allows the NCSE and Department to work with schools to confirm the new special classes and special school provision earlier. The aim is to have a majority of these new special classes confirmed by the end of the calendar year 2025. The NCSE has confirmed that over 800 vacancies remain in special classes in primary school and post-primary school across the country at the start of the 2025-26 school year. Budget 2026 provides funding for teachers and SNAs to support the provision of another 3,000 classes and special school places next year. This continues the acceleration of delivery of special education places to ensure sufficient capacity is provided each year and that children and young people have an appropriate place. Both I and the Minister, Deputy Helen McEntee, will continue to monitor the progress being made on confirming new special classes and special school provision earlier through our weekly meetings with the NCSE and senior officials in the Department. I will be happy to update the House on this work over the coming weeks and months.

I recognise the progress that is being made on confirming new special education provision earlier and piloting the new common application system. Coupled with the concerns relating to the proposed legislation, as I articulated earlier, I ask the House to support the Government's position on this legislation.

In the minute or so that remains, I assure the Deputies and this House that I take the role I have in special education extremely seriously. I know the challenges that are being faced by students and their families. I know they are contacting TDs and looking for help and direction. Both the National Council for Special Education and the Department of education, in our weekly meetings, are acutely aware of the needs that exist and we are working hard. We found the 1 February deadline very time-constrained, which had to be pushed back because of Storm Éowyn earlier in the year, to make decisions about where classes are going and to have buildings in place. I accept the point completely. I know that the Deputy is thinking about the students. I see great work going on around the country. The practitioners at school level, school leadership level, schoolteachers and SNAs do amazing work to help us to build a better special education system and have better outcomes for those children into adulthood. I will continue to update the House. There were more debates than ever about special education in the last term and again this time. That is right and proper because children and families need to have certainty on it. I will continue to work across government to make that a reality.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I do not doubt the Minister of State's sincerity. We have dealt with many issues many times and, in fairness, he has always made his best attempt to deal with those issues. On some level, we are dealing with a system that is far from perfect at this point. I will make a defence of this legislation. I thank Deputy Cummins for speaking on it and I reiterate what she said. A two-year run-in is just a sensible idea, which is why the Irish Primary Principals' Network proposed it.

As I said before, I am not utterly wedded to this legislation. I would be only delighted to have a conversation afterwards and to hear then or in the near future that the Minister of State is moving in the direction of increasing the run-in time. I do not think anyone is going to complain once we see a common application system and once it is simple for parents to use. I think we welcome, while accepting all the issues that we will all have relating to communication, the 1 October deadline for parents notifying the NCSE. Again, we need to make our information systems a hell of a lot better because most of this information should already be known without any parent having to make contact, particularly when we are talking about children who are in the system. More work needs to be done for those who are in the early learning system to ensure that every part of the system communicates, particularly to ensure transitions.

The fact is that there are still children who do not have appropriate places. Buildings have not been delivered. Issues exist with school transport. We need to make sure that sufficient time is provided to schools and the NCSE, but also that we take away some of the hassle and heartache from parents and children. We all know we could talk about the other issues that exist with assessments and that is long before we talk about the necessary supports and therapies. That is another thing that I have supported, in the sense of moving in the direction of having therapies in school. I think I have said it many times before. The logic is that you put the therapies and supports where the need is, which is in the school, which is in some cases the easiest place to deliver. It has also been said that this should probably happen at an earlier stage, in early learning centres.

Not only should we provide those sorts of supports and ensure that we are involving not only SNAs, teachers and principals, but we should also be engaging with the family. The Minister of State and I have spoken many times before about making sure that we have the technological back-up, through assistive technology, that can facilitate everyone from the child to the parent, the teachers and the SNAs. That is absolutely vital.

The problem is that we are starting on the journey far too late and probably in the wrong place. I welcome in-school therapies and the common application system but I need to see them in operation fully and properly. I foresee an issue with the 45 special schools. I imagine they will be absolutely inundated wih applications. It needs to be spread out and ramped up, and much needs to happen. That could take pressure off the whole children's disability network team, CDNT, system. We could eventually get to a situation where they could concentrate more on those bespoke requirements for those with more challenging needs. That is for a different day.

I will not repeat what I have said before. This is usually the point at which I repeat everything that I have said before, but I will not. One of the issues the Minister of State brought up is that the proposed legislation allows for children and young people with special educational needs to apply for admission up to two years in advance.

It is silent on the timelines for schools making decisions on admissions. It is not clear, therefore, that the legislation will achieve its aim of providing clarity for parents earlier. My proposed legislation is silent on the timeline for schools making a decision on admission because the policy objective is to provide, in legislation, for an appreciation that it can take time to facilitate special school places and to provide a longer timeframe within which schools can make this decision. When the information is available, it will result in additional questions that will need to be answered regarding what facilities and supports will be required.

The Minister of State and I will not be in agreement on what is happening here. To use a term that is overused in this House, this is a missed opportunity. We could have refined the Bill on Committee and Report Stages. I would have had no issue with doing that. I hope, as I said, that the Minister of State will show movement, not only on school therapies and the common application system but also on delivering a system in which every child is provided with an appropriate place and some of the nightmares parents have to deal with are removed, and which ensures that everything is resourced.

Communication is vital but it does not always happen. On a somewhat related issue, Bernard Gloster said the parents with the best view of the CDNTs are those who have a direct contact person, a person in play. The same circumstance applies here, so there should at least be communication, but that is not always the case. We are asking for the possibility of a greater run-in time, as proposed initially by the IPPN. It is not as if this is an idea thought up in my head; it comes from a point of view that educators know the issues that exist, everything from an administrative, building and supports point of view to the pressures schools and principals are under to the problems teachers and SNAs have. It is about ensuring we take away some of the pressure on parents and, in particular, on children. We have not fully had their backs. That needs to happen.

I am going to leave it at that. I am deeply disappointed that this legislation is not proceeding. As I said, there were opportunities to change and refine it. It is a straightforward idea from the point of view of ensuring schools have enough time. I would like to think there will be some alternative means by which everything will be streamlined, the information deficit will be addressed and, beyond that, we will have a system that makes it as easy as possible for parents to make applications and then transition. If we allow a sufficient amount of time to deal with these problems, it would make things a hell of a lot more helpful. If it is not to be done through this legislation, it will have to be done by some other means. I would like to see movement on that.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 22 October 2025, or in a fortnight.