Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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1278. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide details of the number of school SEN places sanctioned earlier in 2025; and the date when they will be operational. [44060/25]

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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1279. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide details of the number of children who sought a SEN place for the academic year 2025/2026; and the number who had to be offered home provision as no place was available. [44061/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1278 and 1279 together.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is the national agency with responsibility for the provision of special education places. This year the NCSE has sanctioned 407 new special classes for the coming school year bringing to 3,742 the number of special classes in our schools. A list of these class is available from the NCSE's .

There are new classes in every county in Ireland and with the number of special classes doubling in the last five years, this now means that there are more classes than ever ensuring greater numbers of children can access places in their local school. Furthermore the number of special class places in our schools will exceed demand.

Combined with 300 new special school places this brings to 2,700 the number of new school places for children with special educational needs.

This year, the approach taken was to maximise the use of existing accommodation in schools to ensure new special classes could open as quickly as possible for the 2025/26 school year. The NCSE also prioritised schools which did not have an existing special class. This has ensured that 80% of the new classes sanctioned are in schools with available accommodation.

Where schools require modular accommodation for new special classes, these projects are being fast-tracked by my department to deliver this accommodation as early as possible. In a small number of instances where a delay in new special class accommodation is expected such as where new modular classrooms are being provided, contingency arrangements are being made with the relevant schools with the support of the NCSE.

The NCSE has advised my department that the vast majority of children seeking a special school or special class place have now been assigned a school place. They are working very closely with the remaining families to ensure that they are being kept updated as the remaining special class and special school places are being finalised by a small number of schools.

My department and the NCSE are committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements will be available for children for this school year and future years.