Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to Senator O'Loughlin. I am not sure what happened at the start.

A priority for the Government is to ensure that all children have an appropriate school place and that the necessary supports are provided to our schools to cater for children with special educational needs. It is important to remember that the vast majority of children with special education needs are supported in attending mainstream classes with their peers. To support children with more complex needs, though, the Department will spend in excess of €2.6 billion this year on providing additional teaching and care for them. In 2023, the Department has increased the number of teacher and special needs assistant, SNA, posts and there will be an additional 686 teachers and a further 1,100 SNAs. For the first time ever, we will have more than 19,000 teachers working in special education and more than 20,000 SNAs, together with almost 40,000 qualified and committed people in our schools who are focused exclusively on supporting children with special educational needs.

The National Council for Special Education, NCSE, has responsibility for co-ordinating provision for children across the country.Over the past three years the Department and the NCSE have introduced a number of strategic initiatives to provide sufficient mainstream classes and special school places. These initiatives are bearing fruit with more than 600 special classes sanctioned at primary level, almost 300 sanctioned at post-primary level and five new special schools established over the past three years. On 12 April the Minister announced the establishment of two further special schools as part of a comprehensive update of enhanced education provision - as the Senator referred to, they are in Carrigtwohill in east Cork and in Dublin 7 - for the 2023-24 school year. Along with the two new special schools, the Department has also confirmed that 218 new special classes - 126 at primary level and 92 at post-primary level - have been sanctioned by the NCSE for the 2023-24 school year, with more to be confirmed over the coming weeks. Some 45 of the 218 special classes sanctioned by the NCSE are in County Cork, 29 at primary level and 16 at post-primary level. These new classes are being established in schools across the city and county, including in west Cork. They will bring the total number of special classes in County Cork to 466, 329 at primary level and 137 at post-primary level.

The Senator referenced the issue of establishing a new special school in west Cork. While I am not a Minister of State in the Department of Education, I want to assure him that the Department and the NCSE will continue to monitor and review the need for special schools and the expansion of existing ones over the coming months and years. The Minister is conscious that some students are travelling too far to access a special school or class placement. This is a key consideration when we decide to establish a new special school or expand its services.

I take note of the points made by Senator Lombard. As somebody who is very familiar with the terrain of west Cork, I know there are problems with using a naked population ratio to establish any kind of service in some of the more remote parts of the country. If you compare flat territory that does not have peninsulas, mountains or water to places with lush green fields and roads laid out in straight lines, you may as well be comparing apples with pineapples. They are two totally different things. The Senator is right about the terrain and the geographical impediment. As a teacher, I probably know this better than some. The impediments some people have to endure in order to fulfil the access their child needs to gain a successful education are disproportionate in some cases. The points raised by the Senator are valid.