Results 21-40 of 5,928 for speaker:Michael Moynihan

Review of Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004: Statements (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: 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...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Early Childhood Care and Education (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an appropriate education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority for me, my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers. Where children with more complex needs...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an appropriate education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority for me, my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). The special education teaching (SET) allocation for mainstream schools provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs, including the allocation of special needs assistants (SNAs). The NCSE has advised my department that all schools have been informed of their SNA allocation for the 2025/26 school year. As the NCSE is responsible for the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs including...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Policies (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The government is committed to the provision of additional special school places for children with more complex educational needs. Over 300 new special school places are being provided for the coming 2025/2026 school year. Five new special schools are being established in addition to the eleven new special schools opened over the last few years. Special school capacity is also being expanded...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Data (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The Department of Education and Youth provides an extensive range of supports to assist pupils who are Blind or who have a Visual Impairment. The Department's policy, which is provided for under Section 2 of the Education of Persons with Special Needs Act 2004, aims to ensure all children with special educational needs access appropriate education intervention in mainstream settings where...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 349, 350 and 351 together. The government is committed to the provision of additional special school places for children with more complex educational needs. Over 300 new special school places are being provided for the coming 2025/2026 school year. Five new special schools are being established in addition to the eleven new special schools opened over the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Policies (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The government is committed to the provision of additional special school places for children with more complex educational needs. Over 300 new special school places are being provided for the coming 2025/2026 school year. Five new special schools are being established in addition to the eleven new special schools opened over the last few years. Special school capacity is also being expanded...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth. In the current school year over 173,000 children are transported daily in approximately 8,200 vehicles across 10,600 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. The retirement age for school bus drivers has been set by Bus Éireann...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 359 and 383 together. This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The NCSE actively encourage expressions of interest from schools to open special classes, and I appreciate and commend...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Budgets (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. SNAs play a central role in the successful inclusion of students with additional and significant care needs in schools. They help ensure that these students can access an education...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Budgets (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. Special education teachers provide additional teaching to children attending mainstream classes with special educational needs using a wide variety of teaching approaches. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth. The total number of children enrolled in the school transport scheme in was approx. 162,245 in 2023 and approx. 172,509 in 2024. These figures include pupils traveling on mainstream services and pupils travelling on dedicated services for children with...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Youth. The expenditure of school transport scheme services in 2024 was over €512 m. It is estimated that an additional 100,000 children, above the current pupil numbers on transport, could be accommodated on the mainstream scheme by 2030. To achieve...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Reviews (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. Special schools funded by my department are classified as primary national schools. They are intended, in accordance with the provisions of rule 64(1) of the Rules for National...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Policies (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The Summer Programme is an educational programme which is run during the summer months. Sometimes referred to as July Provision, the Summer Programme was established to support the educational provision for children with severe/profound general learning disability and children with Autism by extending the school year for four weeks annually, typically into the month of July. My...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Policies (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The Summer Programme is an educational programme which is run during the summer months. Sometimes referred to as July Provision, the Summer Programme was established to support the educational provision for children with severe/profound general learning disability and children with Autism by extending the school year for four weeks annually, typically into the month of July. As a direct...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. Through the accelerated provision of additional special class and special school places over recent years, there are now just over 28,000 students enrolled in special classes...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Policies (1 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Details of the 2025 Summer Programme were published on the 13th of February 2024. For this year’s programme, funding of €62 million was secured in Budget 2025 to ensure its continuance. Between 2021 to 2024, €40 million in funding had been allocated each year to the Summer Programme. The level of funding this year represents a 55% increase on the funding previously...