Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the Senator's original contribution she noted that the school was in an old converted building. That is below par for children with special needs so from an overall perspective, it is going to be of benefit to those 30 children, and hopefully more, when they move to the new building in Hacketstown.

From a timeline perspective, as a solicitor and lawyer I know things can get bogged down in legal detail and that can take time. I am not in a position to give the Senator an exact timeline but suffice it to say I will be giving this matter my absolute attention. It will be prioritised as far as I am concerned and we will be closely connecting with the Chief State Solicitor over the next number of months and weeks to see if we can expedite the process. The Chief State Solicitor obviously has to be satisfied that all components and the rigour of the law are tested before moving to the next stage. I will give this my full attention.

As regards a review, the National Council for Special Education will undertake a review of all areas but I will ask it to look at Fingal in particular and to ensure we have enough special classes and ASD units. There are 200 building projects going out in 2021 and 111 of those will provide ASD units. Obviously, if there is a deficit in Fingal I will look at that very closely.