Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and thank him for coming in to take this commencement matter, which is specifically related to his Department. It is great to actually have the lead minister here. Over 30 years ago when I was in UCD, one of my student colleagues at the time was a lady called Margaret Fitzpatrick and her brother was Mick Fitzpatrick. Mick sadly passed away a long time ago now and we remember him. I was recently reacquainted with Margaret when her school came on a trip to Leinster House and she raised an issue with me at the time of the lack of autism classes in their school. Subsequently to her visit, she followed up with me. I have quite a lot of detail on the Stapolin Educate Together school in Baldoyle now and the wonderful work they are doing in the whole area of autism. They have two classes already which are very successful. The classes are well embedded into the school community and the children who are benefiting from the special autism classes are thriving, which proves that the model works.Within the school are a number of other students who are in the mainstream school body. Even more importantly, there are an estimated 30 students within the Baldoyle community and the surrounding catchment area who have applied for places in the Educate Together school. They have engaged with the Department, the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, the Minister of State, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and previously her predecessor, Deputy McEntee, to get sanction for another two classes, which will be filled overnight.

In recent days, the classes have been sanctioned but not the build, so the school simply does not have the space. With the best will in the world, you cannot turn toilets into a classroom or have a classroom in a corridor. Such scenarios are just not workable. Without the sanction to build the two classrooms, the project will not go ahead. It defeats the purpose of granting sanction for two extra classes without providing sanction and the funding to build.

I have a simple and straightforward ask of the Minister of State, namely, that he and his Department sanction the funding to build the two new special needs classes for which the school has been approved. Such sanction would continue the ethos of quality education and continue the tradition that has been well established in this school of inclusivity, equality, equal opportunity and getting the best out of every student irrespective of his or her ability, disability or circumstances.

The Minister of State and I know, because we have spoken at length about it over the last number of years, that there are lots of schools that have no interest whatsoever in special education and providing special classes. When there is a school that not only wants such classes, but embraces the opportunity and sees the benefit to the school and society in providing equality of opportunity and of access to education, then we need to work with it, support is and put funding in place to make things happen. It is by providing the foundations and classes that we get the best out of all of our students. I know that this is something that the Minister of State is passionate about and wants to see happen. I hope that he will be able to tell me today that not alone has this school been approved, which we know, but also that the Department will provide the funding to build the classrooms.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue. We all have connections to school communities, be they within our own communities or, indeed, across the country. It is hugely important that political representation continues to engage with school communities because they are the bedrock of the future of our society.

The Senator is right to say that special education is very important to me. Since I took up this role, I have worked with the then Minister, Deputy McEntee, over the last number of months and now with the new Minister, Deputy Naughton. We look forward to advancing all education, in particular special education.

As the Senator may be aware, an additional 168 classes have been sanctioned across 159 schools over the last couple of weeks. That is the first tranche of the amount of schools that we will sanction over the next number of months. We hope to be in a position to sanction other schools in the not-too-distant future. All Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas will be made aware of them, they will be on the NCSE's website and the school authorities will be notified about them.

In terms of Stapolin and the school mentioned, I know about the great work that is being done there. The school already has three special classes, with two dedicated to children with autism and one for students with developmental language disorder or speech and sound disorder. That school community does exemplary work. They really are at the cutting edge in terms of what they provide to students right across mainstream but particularly for special classes. I compliment the school leadership, the teachers and the SNAs for the work that they do within the school every day.

It is always great to see it when schools that already have special classes look forward to having more because they see the benefit and get a huge sense of reward from working with children with additional needs. I saw that quite clearly from the work being done by many of the schools that we visited across the country over the last number of months.

The NCSE has engaged extremely closely with school authorities in terms of what is needed into the future. The next tranche of announcements will occur within the next week or so. The NCSE and the Department are working very closely with this school's authorities to ensure we understand what they want to enlarge the cohort of special education requirements within the school. There is huge demand right across the country, but particularly in Dublin, of which we are acutely aware. We understand all that.

I take the points that the Senator made about the buildings. What we are trying to do across the country is look at what can be done within existing school buildings. In every school in which we will open special classes, we would have to go in with new build or modular build but those decisions are being made at the moment. My Department and the NCSE have weekly meetings to monitor them. Over the next number of weeks as the position becomes clearer, I propose that I come back to the Senator with an update rather than giving carte blanche information here this morning that we might not be able to stand over. I propose to take back the issue raised by the Senator and then report directly to him when we have an update from both the Department and the NCSE.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. The ask is fairly clear. Of the 168 extra classes that were announced, I imagine a lot of them are in schools that have the physical capacity and, potentially, have classrooms that can be changed and adapted. There are some. Clearly, the Stapolin Educate Together school is one where it is neither practical nor possible to incorporate a class without a new build. There are situations and this is one of them. In order for this project to proceed, funding must be made available to build a new classroom. The school would probably be delighted if the Minister of State, in his capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for special education, visited the school because he would get a flavour of the work that the school has done on the ground very successfully to date and learn of its plans for the future. I am sure that the school would be open to having more than two extra classes if possible. Perhaps a visit could be considered in the Minister of State's diary.

I thank the Minister of State for his constant engagement with me on this issue. I know from the many years he was Chair of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters of his forensic knowledge of this area, his determination and his absolute commitment to an equal society. As somebody with a disability, I get great encouragement and zealousness from his passion and commitment. Therefore, I believe that special education is in very good hands. Hopefully, when this term is up in four years' time, we will see huge changes in terms of access to education for people with various disabilities, there will be equality and opportunities, and we will have a society that has a level playing pitch for everybody. That is all anybody wants. People do not want any special favours. They just want a level playing pitch.

In conclusion, I hope that we will see a physical build in the Educate Together school in Baldoyle. I commend Margaret Fitzpatrick, principal, and all of the staff for their ongoing commitment and the work they do.I do this in memory of my old friend Michael Fitzpatrick, who passed away many years ago.

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator, and Mary and her team. It is a great tribute to the Senator's friend as well. I acknowledge that. I also thank the Senator for his kind words on the job at hand.

On the specific school, I confirm that the Department and the NCSE are continuing to liaise with the school authorities on additional classes. We are trying to make sure we have classes within existing structures across education systems. We have many challenges in that regard but the Department and the NCSE will continue to engage to make sure we bring this to fruition.

I thank the Senator for the comments he made. It is also important to acknowledge the great work being done by school authorities across the country which have embraced special education, many in recent years and decades. There are many other school communities that we need to bring into the fold. We need to ensure they open special classes because we need to have special classes in every community, urban and rural, so that people do not have to travel. It is important that we do that.

I compliment the school on what it is doing. I thank the Senator for raising the issues and look forward to working with him. When the conclusions of the NCSE and the Department's consultation with the school authorities are made available to me, I will bring them straight to the Senator's attention.

As always, I look forward to visiting Ennistymon and Clare, as I have done in summer over the years. I have seen at first hand the massive school building. It is across the hill from where we have stayed for the past few years. We look forward to our visit to Clare every year.

I thank the Senator for his comments and his interest in education. When I have further information to hand, I will bring it to his attention.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State comes to Clare, to my home town, on his holidays every year and he and I have great social engagements. The school in Ennistymon took ten years to plan and another ten years to build, but it is a fantastic facility, one of the best in the country.