Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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416. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to a recent announcement of five special schools, two of which are to be in Dublin, the locations of the schools in Dublin and the way the locations will be decided. [44470/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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My department works closely with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) on the forward planning of new special classes and additional special school places. In Budget 2025, funding was secured for up to 400 new special classes in mainstream schools, and an additional 300 special school places for the 2025/26 school year. This will deliver 2,700 new places for children.

Almost 1,700 new special classes have been provided over the last 5 years and eleven special schools have been provided also in recent years. For this 2024/25 school year alone, over 400 new special classes have been sanctioned with classes provided in every county. Four new special schools have also opened last month in counties Meath, Kildare, Wexford and Limerick.

My department and the NCSE continue to work closely on the forward planning of special education provision. Just last month Minster Foley and I announced that another five new special schools will be established for the next school year 2025/26, two in County Dublin and one each in counties Cork, Monaghan and Tipperary. The exact location, size of the schools and other details are currently being worked through.

This will bring to 6 the number of new special schools established in County Dublin in recent years. It will bring to 129 the number of NCSE supported special schools in the county.

It is envisaged that existing buildings will be repurposed, in the first instance, to facilitate the opening of the new special schools for the 2025/26 school year. Further details such as the precise location of the new schools in each county will be confirmed in due course as part of the finalisation of arrangements for the opening of the new special schools.

The schools will provide for children and young people with complex special education needs from 4 years up to 18 years of age. They are being sanctioned as early as possible as part of advanced forward planning for the next school year to ensure that appropriate placements are available where needed to meet the needs of students with special educational needs.

The announcement of these schools is a significant step forward. Part of the forward planning process looks at how far students are travelling to access an education appropriate to their needs.

The early announcement of the new schools is an important milestone because it allows more time for the planning of school admissions, recruitment of staff, staff training and completion of necessary building works.

Dedicated working groups will be established by my department to work through the details in relation to the establishment of the new special schools. The NCSE at local level will continue to support and update families on the establishment of the new special school.