Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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524. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school age children, of whom her Department is aware, who are seeking a school place and have yet to receive one, as of September 2025. [48343/25]

Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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573. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children in both primary and post primary who are currently without an appropriate school place for the year 2025-2026, by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48999/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 524 and 573 together.

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) 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 3,741 the number of special classes in our schools. 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 a very small number of remaining families in Dublin 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 delivering an education system that is of the highest quality and where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential.

Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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525. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school age children who are receiving home based tuition, and the associated reason, as of September 2025. [48344/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's Home Tuition Grant Schemes provide funding towards the provision of a compensatory educational service for children who, for a number of specific reasons, are unable to attend school.

The aim of the Department is to meet the needs of families and to ensure every child is allocated a suitable school placement. The preferred approach is that children are educated in school settings where children may have access to fully qualified teachers, individualised education programmes, special needs assistants, school curriculum with the option, where possible and appropriate, of full or partial integration and interaction with student peers. Accordingly, home tuition is provided as an interim measure only for children for whom a placement in a recognised school is not currently available and should not be regarded as an optional alternative to a school placement. By its nature, home tuition is intended to be a short term intervention.

The Home Tuition Grant Schemes are governed by annual circulars which sets out the purpose, eligibility criteria and details of the scheme. For example, Circular 0047/2025 provides information in relation to the 2025/2026 Home Tuition Grant Scheme (Special Education Component) and can be accessed by clicking on the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/circulars/home-tuition-grant-scheme-2025-2026-special-education-component/

Under Circular 0047/2025, the purpose of the Home Tuition Grant Scheme (Special Education Component) is to provide funding towards the provision of a compensatory educational service for:

1. Pre-School Children with autism who meet the scheme’s eligibility criteria
2. Children seeking a Special School or Special Class placement
3. Students, enrolled in schools, with a significant medical condition, which has caused, and is likely to continue to cause, major disruption to their attendance at school
4. Students, enrolled in schools, with school phobia and/or associated depression/anxiety, which has caused, and is likely to continue to cause, major disruption to their attendance at school

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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526. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students who sat each subject in the Leaving Certificate, at each of higher and ordinary level, from 2016 to 2025, in tabular form. [48371/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the state examinations, including publication of examination statistics. In view of this I have forwarded your query to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you.

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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527. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students who sat each subject in the Junior Certificate, at higher and ordinary level, by year from 2016 to 2025, in tabular form. [48372/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The State Examinations Commission has statutory responsibility for operational matters relating to the state examinations, including publication of examination statistics. In view of this I have forwarded your query to the State Examinations Commission for direct reply to you.