Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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191. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason mainstream classes in a pre-school (details supplied) have been excluded from special needs education support; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16919/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The Rutland Street Pre-school Project (also known as Holy Child Pre-School), was established in 1969. It is a two-year pre-school programme in a Dublin inner city community, with capacity for approximately 99 children (presently 93) aged between 3-5 years which is funded by the Department of Education.

The staffing for the project initially was 7 teachers and 5 child care workers, the staffing now stands at an Administrative Principal and 6 teachers along with 5 childcare workers.

In addition, Rutland Street pre-school has one NCSE sanctioned Early Intervention class to which a teacher and 2.49 SNA posts are attached.

In addition to teaching resources, the project receives an annual grant to fund non-teaching pay (secretary, cook, cleaner) and non-pay (running costs) elements.

Since 2017 the pre-school has been a part of the North East Inner City Initiative. This is an inter-agency group led by the Department of An Taoiseach which provides a range of support measures in Dublin’s North-East Inner City area, including early learning and care (ELC) services in the area. In 2022 the preschool received grants totalling €3,000 as well as other supports from the NEIC Programme Implementation Board.

When the project was initiated, the pre-school was assigned a roll number and this was for administrative purposes only so that Teachers, Childcare Workers and latterly SNAs would be paid via the Department’s payroll. The preschool having a roll number does not provide the preschool with a designation of a recognised primary school.

The Special Education Teaching model is an allocation model to provide recognised primary and post primary schools with additional teaching hours to support the teaching needs of their students in mainstream classes only.

All primary and post primary schools receive a SET allocation based on their profile of needs.

Preschools do not receive SET resources from the SET allocation model and as the Holy child is a preschool and not a primary school it would not be entitled to receive SET resources.

My department will engage will all relevant areas with responsible for preschool provision and those mentioned above who are already providing support to the Holy Child preschool to ensure that the children attending there are supported.

Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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192. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will sanction the provision of additional time and additional supports for dyslexic students sitting State exams in secondary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17157/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government commits to developing an appropriate mechanism to allow additional time for students with specific needs and in certain circumstances, and also to ensure that those who use assistive technology can do so in State examinations.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has responsibility for the operation and delivery of the State examinations, and facilitates access to the examinations through its scheme of reasonable accommodations at the certificate examinations, otherwise known as the RACE scheme. I welcome that the SEC has now commenced a comprehensive review of the scheme, in which it intends to give consideration to these and all relevant issues.

I have asked the SEC to respond directly to the Deputy with further detail about the RACE scheme and the review process.