Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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115. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will ensure that a place in a designated special school will be secured for a person for September 2025 for (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16000/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs.

The NCSE has advised that the local special educational needs organiser (SENO) is working closely with the student’s family regarding options for a school placement for the next academic year.

Through the accelerated provision of additional special class and special school places over recent years, there are now just over 28,000 students enrolled in special classes and special schools. Budget 2025 provides for an additional 2,700 specialist places, made up of 400 new special class and 300 additional special school places. On top of this, there will be over 1,000 places available through the normal annual movement of students progressing from primary to post-primary and students graduating from post-primary or special schools. There also remains special class vacancies in some areas of the country.

Of the 400 new special classes places provided for in Budget 2025, the NCSE has advised that 352 of these classes have already been sanctioned for the 2025/26 school year. Of these 66 are in Dublin, 48 at primary and 18 at post primary level.

This will add to the 602 special classes currently in operation in the county Dublin. There are also 40 special schools in Dublin with approximately 2,600 students enrolled. Two of the five new special schools for the 2025/26 school year will open in Lucan and Belmayne also. These schools will open for enrolment shortly.

In Dublin and indeed nationwide, the NCSE continue to engage intensely with schools and school patron bodies to confirm further classes. As the NCSE progress the sanctioning of the remaining special classes they will inform parents.

Where new special classes have been sanctioned, I would urge schools to progress the admission of students as soon as possible to ensure that the NCSE can continue to evaluate demand in local areas, sanction classes as required and assist parents in securing a school place.

My department and the NCSE are committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements remain available for children with special educational needs.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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116. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of a case (details supplied) in which a child with additional needs in Tallaght is unable to get a place in a special school; if she will instruct her Department to take all necessary steps to ensure that more resources to schools in the area to made available to facilitate new places; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16006/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs.

As your query refers to an individual placement, I will arrange to have it referred to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply.

There continues to be an increasing need to provide additional special school places to support children with complex needs. To meet this need, eleven new special schools have been established in recent years and capacity has been expanded in a number of others. Five more special schools will be established for the 2025/26 school year in counties, Cork, Dublin (2), Monaghan and Tipperary. The two new special schools being established in Lucan and Belmayne will open for admissions in the coming weeks. Capacity is also being expanded in other special schools in Dublin and the NCSE at local level will keep families aware of these developments.

The new special schools established over recent years have focused on providing additional places in our largest urban areas – Dublin and Cork. The department and NCSE have already begun planning in relation to further expanding special school capacity for the 2026/27 school year. It is estimated that a further 300 new special school places may be required each year for the coming years.

When looking to provide additional capacity the department’s preferred option is to increase provision in existing special schools if possible. Where this is not possible in a region, the department and NCSE will consider the need to establish a new special school.

In planning for increased special school places, the department and NCSE are reviewing all of the available data on the growing need for special school places across the country. This involves a detailed analysis of enrolment trends and the potential for existing special schools in a region to expand.

Part of the forward planning process as to where new classes, schools or expansion is required looks at how far students are travelling to access an education appropriate to their needs. This is an important factor which has been incorporated into the decision-making process. Consideration is also given to the information the NCSE hold at local level on the number of children seeking a special school place in a region.

My department and the NCSE are committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements remain available for children with special educational needs and will continue to review and monitor the situation in County Dublin and indeed nationwide as to where new special schools are required.

It is important to me and this Government that we build on the initiatives recently introduced to ensure that no matter where a child is enrolled, they have access to the required supports to enable them to achieve their educational goals.

An example of this is the Educational Therapy Support Service (ETSS) which sees 39 occupational and speech and language therapy posts embedded within the NCSE. The service is designed to build the capacity of teachers (and other school personnel as relevant) to provide as effectively as possible for the needs of all students.

While the provision of clinical therapy supports to children is the responsibility of the HSE, my department is working with the Department of Health, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and the HSE to develop and strengthen more coherent structures to enable children and young people to access therapeutic supports across both health and education.

As a result of this engagement the enhanced in-school therapy supports pilot commenced in September 2024 delivering in school supports to sixteen special schools via the HSE’s Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNTs) and supported by the NCSE. The purpose of the programme is to provide the effective delivery of in-school therapy supports to children and supplement existing services being provided through CDNTs.

Encouraging teachers and indeed other professionals to partake in the Summer Programme is another area my department has focused on in recent times. In acceptance of the cumbersome payment methods previously used my department developed an online portal to simplify payments and shifted to an automated model with payments made directly to staff member rather than the programme provider. Other initiatives in the programme include paying contracted teachers and SNAs their personal rate of pay and allowing student teachers and other external workers such as early childcare workers, carers and other students in relevant areas such as therapy, nursing and social care to take part in programmes.