Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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121. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills under whose remit the power to direct schools to make additional special education provision available and ensure sufficient places are provided under section 37a of the Education Act 1998 lies. [45534/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Government introduced the Education (Provision in Respect of Children with Special Educational Needs Act) 2022 to support the provision of adequate special class and special school places for children with complex needs.

The legislation takes a child-centred approach to ensuring that appropriate provision is made for children with special education needs. It provides for a truncated and more streamlined Section 37A process where the Minister can direct a school to make additional provision for children with special educational needs. The Minister can consider issuing a direction under Section 37A on foot of receiving a detailed report from the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) who have the statutory responsibility for planning for special education provision.

While the Minister is open to using Section 37A if required, the preference for both the Department and the NCSE is to continue to work collaboratively with schools. This approach is working with almost 1700 new special classes and 11 new special schools provided over the last 5 years.

The 2022 legislation also amended Section 67 of the Education Act 1998 which provides for the NCSE to direct a school to enrol a child with special education needs.

The NCSE have used the revised section 67 power on a small number of occasions this summer to direct schools to enrol individual children with special education needs.