Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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348. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the approved ASD unit for a school (details supplied) in County Offaly; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5915/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the Department has no current record of receiving an application for Additional School Accommodation (ASA) scheme from the school in question.

The purpose of the Additional School Accommodation scheme is to ensure that essential mainstream classroom accommodation and accommodation for pupils with special education needs is available to cater for pupils enrolled each year, where the need cannot be met by the school’s existing accommodation or at other schools in the area.

At primary level, this situation generally arises to cater for a school’s accommodation requirements where an additional teaching post has been sanctioned by Teacher Allocation Section, or the requirement for a new class for pupils with special education needs has been identified by the NCSE, and all available alternative accommodation within the school is already being used for classroom purposes.

The provision of education for children with special needs is an ongoing priority for government. The numbers of special classes, special education teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs) are at unprecedented levels.

In 2024, the department spent over €2.7 billion on special education and further progress will be made in 2025 as an additional €159 million has been dedicated to providing supports for children with special educational needs.

Over a quarter of the entire education budget has been dedicated to special education in recent years. The main supports this funding provides for are special classes, SNAs and special education teachers.

The NCSE has advised that there are 3,336 special classes in operation nationwide for this school year. These classes can provide for over 21,000 students. 408 of these are new for the current school year – 289 at primary and 119 at post-primary level.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs. My Department and the NCSE are engaging with schools and school management bodies in relation to the provision of future special classes and are committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements will be available for children for September and into the future.

Budget 2025 provides funding for another 400 special classes and 300 special school places nationwide. Special educational needs organisers (SENOs) play an important role in ensuring there is adequate special educational provision within local areas and over the last few months the NCSE have visited schools nationwide to conduct planning meetings. These visits will be key in terms of forward planning for the 2025/26 school year.