Results 421-440 of 6,556 for speaker:Michael Moynihan

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: My department and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) are committed to ensuring that no matter where a child is enrolled they have access to the required supports to enable them to achieve their educational goals. At the heart of this are the 44,000 special education teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs) dedicated to ensuring each child is valued and is actively supported...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: On December 12, 2024, the department published the "Understanding Behaviours of Concern and Responding to Crisis Situations in Schools" guidelines. “Behaviours of concern” are defined in the guidelines as “behaviours that indicate a risk to the safety or wellbeing of the people who exhibit them or to others”. The guidelines have been developed to address...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 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 advised that 407 new special classes have been sanctioned for the 2025/26 school year. This includes a number of new early...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The School Transport Scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. There is a facility within the Special Educational Needs Transport Scheme for the appointment of a School Transport Escort where a child’s care and safety needs while on school transport are such as to require the support of a School Transport Escort. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Funding (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Each school is provided with special education teaching (SET) hours to support children who have been identified with an additional learning need via the continuum of support framework. There are over 14,700 special education teachers supporting students with additional needs attending mainstream classes in the 2024/25 school year, which is an increase of over 1,000 since the end of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 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. Budget 2025 provided for 1,600 SNAs,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (29 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 purpose of the Department's School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school. Under the terms of the Department’s School...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: Under the current terms of the School Transport Schemes, children are eligible for transport at primary level where they reside not less than 3.2 kilometres from and are attending their nearest national school, and at post primary level where they reside not less than 4.8 kilometres from and are attending their nearest post primary school/education centre as determined by the department/Bus...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1053 and 1081 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. Reconfiguration works to provide two special education classrooms, and two mainstream classrooms is in delivery for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The National Council for Special Education (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...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Transport (29 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. Bus Éireann is responsible for the planning and timetabling of school transport routes. Bus Éireann endeavours, within available resources, to ensure that each eligible child has a reasonable level of school transport service in the context of the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Enrolments (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The National Council for Special Education (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...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Staff (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1072, 1073, 1074, 1075 and 1076 together. Work to develop a Special Needs Assistants (SNA) Redeployment scheme is ongoing. This important policy initiative will ensure that competent, knowledgeable and experienced SNAs are retained in our schools, building capacity in the workforce and enhancing the service to children with special educational needs. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: While the provision of clinical therapy supports to children is the responsibility of the Health Service Executive (HSE), my department is working with the Department of Health, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and the HSE to develop and strengthen more coherent structures to enable children and young people to access therapeutic supports across both health and education. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The Department of Education’s policy in respect of supporting children and young people with additional needs is very clear. Based on a child-centred approach to the provision of education, the role is to ensure that all children with additional needs are supported to access an education appropriate to their needs The underpinning principle is that the child with the greatest level of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: As the Deputy is aware, in September 2024, the Department undertook a review of Circular 0038/2007. An updated circular, Circular 0024/2025 was published in March 2025. The term SSLD will no longer apply in relation to entry to these classes and will be replaced instead with Developmental Language Disorder – Speech Sound Disorder (DLD/SSD). The revised criteria sees, among other...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is, in the first instance, the primary body responsible for the matter the Deputy has raised. I have forwarded this issue to them for their attention and direct reply. Deputies are also welcome to raise such queries with the NCSE directly through their dedicated Oireachtas query line at oireachtasqueries@ncse.ie. This year the NCSE...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The report of the Special Education Review Committee was published in November 1993, its purpose as set out in the terms of reference, was to review and make recommendations on the educational provision for children with special educational needs. While much of the language of the report is outdated, its contents has helped shape the landscape of our special education system over the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 Jul 2025)

Michael Moynihan: The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is, in the first instance, the primary body responsible for the matter the Deputy has raised. Deputies are also welcome to raise such queries with the NCSE directly through their dedicated Oireachtas query line at oireachtasqueries@ncse.ie. Parents seeking special class placements for their children are advised to contact the NCSE locally...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (29 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). As the NCSE is responsible for the allocation of SNAs to schools, I have forwarded the school's details to them for their attention and direct reply. ...