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

I assure the Senator that, as the first dedicated Minister of State with responsibility for special education, I am doing everything I can to ensure the rights and best interests of children with special needs are at the forefront of everything we do. The unprecedented funding of €2 billion is an acknowledgement of that. My list of action priorities includes a review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. That review will take into account not only the reforms in recent times but also all aspects of developments regarding new allocation models and other matters.

As the Senator and I may have discussed before, the Department's policy of supporting children with special needs has changed from a diagnosis-led model to one driven by the needs of the child. My Department's advice is that the majority of schools do carry out some form of educational planning for pupils with special educational needs.