Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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437. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline the current expenditure pre-committed to her Department for responding to demographic pressures and pay in Meath East as regards special educational needs in each of the years 2025 to 2029, in tabular form. [44667/24]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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438. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current expenditure pre-committed to her Department for responding to demographic pressures and pay in Meath as regards special educational needs in each of the years 2025 to 2029, in tabular form. [44668/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 437 and 438 together.

My Department’s voted estimate for capital and current expenditure for 2025 stands at €11.8 Billion. This represents an increase of over €3.1 Billion or 36% since 2020 and includes €7.6 billion for pay related expenditure. Budget 2025 provides an increase of €712 million in core current funding to my Department's Vote, as well as over €360 million in core capital funding. An additional €120 million is also being provided as part of Cost of Living supports and €140 million in Ukraine related supports. These additional funds build on significant increases in recent budgets and further enhance the investment in Ireland’s primary and post-primary education system. The significant increased investment is the largest Education budget in the history of the state and reflects the Government’s commitment to a quality inclusive school system and improved learning outcomes for every student.

Over recent and current budgets, additional resources have been made available to our schools, including through the delivery of thousands of extra teaching and Special Needs Assistant posts, increased capitation in schools and investment in school transport services, enhanced supports for school leadership and management, additional supports for special schools, reduced class sizes in primary schools, significant expansion of the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) scheme, enhanced capacity to meet the increased number of pupils enrolled in our schools and special educational needs pupils in special classes and special schools, increased funding for social inclusion programmes, measures to increase the supply of teachers available and free school books for primary and post primary students. Significant additional resources and supports were also provided in response to the Ukraine, Cost of Living and Covid-19 crises.

The 2024 Summer Economic Statement outlines on page 21 in tabular form the Government's medium term expenditure strategy for 2025 to 2030, showing the current expenditure ceiling increasing by a further 5 per cent per annum from 2026 to 2030. The Summer Economic Statement is available at: www.gov.ie/en/publication/ee21b-summer-economic-statement-2024/

Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this Government. It is also a key priority for my Department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). Budget 2025 provides for a record level of investment of €2.9 billion in special education which represents a 6% increase on 2024 and provides for an additional 768 special education teachers and 1,600 special needs assistants (SNAs) posts to support children across mainstream, special classes and special schools. This is the highest ever number of SNAs allocated and so in 2025 we will have over 23,000 in our education system. In total there will be over 44,000 dedicated staff to support children with special educational needs in our schools. The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided.

The Department of Education and the NCSE work closely in relation to the forward planning of new special classes and additional special school places. A number of strategic initiatives have been introduced over recent years to plan for and provide sufficient special class and special school places. These initiatives are bearing fruit with almost 1,700 new special classes sanctioned and eleven new special schools established over the last five years. Many more special schools have been extended to provide additional capacity. Over 400 new special classes have been sanctioned nationwide by the NCSE for this school year. This brings to 3,337 the number of special classes in the country, 2,339 at primary level and 998 at post-primary level. 23 of these new special classes will open in Co. Meath. This brings to 156 the total number of special classes in Co. Meath for the 2024/25 school year. In addition, 4 new special schools have opened for this school year. One of these new special schools, Cara Community Special School, is located in Co. Meath and this brings the total number of special schools in Co. Meath to 3 for the 2024/25 school year.

The financial budgets for my Department are not allocated or recorded on a county basis. I am, therefore, not in a position to provide specific details on the amounts allocated to Co. Meath or Meath East. I can, however, indicate that the measures cited above will have a positive impact on school communities in Meath.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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439. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update on the special school in Meath due to open for the coming school year (details supplied). [44669/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority for me as Minister for Special Education & Inclusion, for my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided.

Cara Community Special School located in Enfield County Meath opened on 10 September 2024. It initially enrolled eighteen students. It's patron is Louth and Meath Education and Training Board (LMETB). My department have been supporting the patron and the school in its establishment.

11 new special schools have been established and many more expanded, four of these are new special schools for this school year. These schools have opened in counties Kildare, Limerick, Meath and Wexford. In addition almost 1,700 classes have been sanctioned by the NCSE in recent years, For this school year alone over 400 new special classes have been sanctioned bringing the total number of special classes nationwide to 3,337. 156 of these classes are in County Meath, 23 are new for this school year, 16 in primary and 7 at post-primary level.

Just last month Minster Foley and I announced that another five special schools will be established for the next school year 2025/26 in counties Cork, Dublin (2), Monaghan and Tipperary. The exact location, size of the schools and other details are currently being worked through.

These special schools will provide for children and young people with complex special education needs up to 18 years of age. They have been 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.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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441. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a breakdown of special needs teachers in 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 in Meath; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44671/24]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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442. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a breakdown of special needs teachers per capita in 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 in Meath; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44672/24]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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443. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a breakdown of special needs teachers per capita in 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44673/24]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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444. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide a breakdown of special needs teachers in 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44674/24]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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445. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of special teachers in 2023-2024 in Meath; the provisional allocation for special teachers for 2024-2025, by county, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44675/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 441 to 445, inclusive, together.

I would like to thank the deputy for the questions raised.

The Special Education Teacher allocation is allocated to an individual school based on their educational needs profile. The data requested on an individual county basis is not readily available but is being compiled and will be provided directly to the deputy when completed.

The request for data on a per capita basis is not available. The data in relation to individual pupils supported through the SET hours allocated to schools is not available to the department but is maintained in each school where support is provided based on the continuum of support.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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446. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on the provision of special education needs resources in schools in Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44679/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority for me as Minister for Special Education & Inclusion, for my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided.

The NCSE has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs nationwide.

Almost 1,700 classes have been sanctioned by the NCSE over the last 5 years. In recent years, 11 new special schools have also been established and many more expanded. For this school year alone over 400 new special classes have been sanctioned bringing the total number of special classes nationwide to 3,337.

131 of these classes are in County Kildare, 16 are new for the 2024/25 school year, 12 at primary level and 4 at post-primary level. The vast majority of these are autism classes and have a teacher/student ratio of 1:6. There is also six special schools in the county supporting approximately 350 students with more complex needs. One of these was newly established for this school year.

Budget 2025 provides funding for another 400 special classes and 300 special school places nationwide and it is estimated that a similar level of provision will be needed each year for the next 3 years.

The NCSE have recruited additional special education needs organisers (SENOs), advisors and team managers. The total number of SENOs has increased from 65 to 120. There are now 6 SENOs operating in County Kildare. SENOs play an important role in ensuring there is adequate special educational provision within local areas and are currently visiting schools nationwide to conduct planning meetings. These visits will be key in terms of forward planning for the 2025/26 school year.

Parents seeking special class placements for their children are advised to contact the NCSE locally so that their needs can be taken into account for planning purposes. Local SENOs are available to assist and advise parents on their options and the supports available.