Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

51. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which the school building programme is adequate over the next three years to meet the accommodation requirements at primary and second level in view of the need to bring classes sizes into line with best practice and ensure the availability of adequate mainstream special needs places in sufficient numbers to meet the demand and avoid delays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24655/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. The GIS uses data from a range of sources, including the Central Statistics Office, Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Department of Social Protection and my Department's own databases. With this information, my Department carries out nationwide demographic exercises at primary and post-primary level to determine where additional school accommodation is needed.

In addition, my Department is included among the prescribed bodies to whom local authorities are statutorily obliged to send draft development and local area plans or proposed variations to development plans for comment and observations. This enables local authorities to reserve future school sites in areas designated for proposed housing development.

My Department's 6 Year Capital Programme prioritises building projects for areas where significant additional school places are required. The Capital Programme also provides for devolved funding for additional classrooms, if required, for schools where an immediate enrolment need has been identified or where an additional teacher has been appointed.

Budget 2017 sets out the teaching resources available for schools for the 2017/18 school year. This budget represents the start of a major reinvestment in education and the first phase of implementation of the Action Plan for Education, aimed at becoming the best education system in Europe within a decade. The budget provides for over 2,400 additional teaching posts for our primary and post-primary schools next year. This includes additional teaching posts to meet demographic need, curriculum reform, additional guidance posts, additional resource teaching posts, addition teaching support for DEIS schools and the strengthening of school leadership. 

My Department's policy is that children with special educational needs should be included in mainstream placements with additional supports provided, unless such a placement would not be in their best interests or in the interests of the children with whom they are to be educated. Some children may be supported in a special class attached to a mainstream school. Other children may have such complex needs that they are best placed in a special school. My Department, therefore, provides for a range of placement options and supports for schools, which have enrolled pupils with special educational needs, in order to ensure that wherever a child is enrolled, (s)he will have access to an appropriate education. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), in consultation with the relevant education partners, is responsible for the establishment of special classes in various geographical areas where there is an identified need.

There are currently 1,152 special classes nationally, which is an increase of over 100% on the number available in 2011. Of these, 126 are ASD early intervention classes, 526 are primary ASD classes and 236 are post-primary ASD classes. The remainder are non-ASD special classes. The NCSE has informed my Department that it intends to establish an additional 181 Special Classes for the 2017/18 school year which will bring the total number of Special Classes available across the country to 1334.