Ann Graves (Dublin Fingal East, Sinn Fein)
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864. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline her Department’s plans to increase the number of SNAs and special education places, and to improve school buildings, school funding, school transport, teacher recruitment and retention for schools in Fingal east (details supplied). [59770/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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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.

In 2026, over €3 billion will be spent supporting children with special educational needs. It will ensure that specialist capacity continues to grow by providing 3,000 specialist places. The majority of these places will be available in special classes within mainstream schools. It will increase our special educational posts by 860 special education teacher and over 1,700 special needs assistant (SNA) posts. This will mean we will have over 46,500 professionals dedicated to supporting students with special educational needs in our schools. This is one of the highest annual increases in posts to date and is a firm reminder of this government’s commitment to supporting students with special educational needs.

Budget 2026 has also afforded a number of new initiatives such as funding for the roll out of the Education Therapy Service (ETS), the introduction of extra SET hours for post-primary schools to support coordination and transition efforts and indeed a special school package to support the unique challenges these schools face.

Through the accelerated provision of additional special class and special school places over recent years, there are now over 30,000 students enrolled in special classes and special schools. 2,700 new places were created for the 2025/26 school year and these, together with the over 1,200 existing places due to students moving on from primary schools and post-primary schools, has meant that close to 4,000 specialist places were made available for the 2025/26 school year.

407 new special classes were sanctioned for the 2025/26 school year. Of these 103 are in County Dublin, 81 at primary and 22 at post-primary level. This brings to 705 the number of special classes currently in operation in the county. There are also 420 special schools in County Dublin with approximately 2,7400 students enrolled. Two of these are of the five new special schools for the 2025/26 school year and are located in Lucan and Belmayne.

The NCSE is currently collating the data and information received by 1 October through the parents notify process and are engaging with schools regarding where specialist provision is best placed for the 2026/27 school year. It is envisioned that the majority of these special classes will be sanctioned by 31 December 2025.

I would like to stress that the NCSE will continue to support all children made known to them after the 1 October deadline, however, it is important for planning purposes that we set an earlier timeframe for which the NCSE has as much local knowledge and detail as possible in order to plan what new provision is required.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)
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865. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of parents that gave notice to the NCSE that their child requires a special class/special school place for the 2026/2027 school year, up to the deadline of 1 October 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59775/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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In order to support the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and forward planning my department published Circular 0039/2025. This circular informs school management and patrons of measures introduced to support forward planning and reiterates the need for parents to inform the NCSE that they are seeking a special educational placement for their child. An earlier date of 1 October was set for parents to do so.

This notification process will provide the NCSE with valuable information as to which children will continue to require a special class as they progress to post-primary level and details on students who require a place for the first time.

The earlier date will allow for earlier sanctioning of classes for the 2026/27 school year, and it is the aim of the NCSE to sanction the majority of new special classes by 31 December 2025.

The NCSE is currently collating the data and information received through the parents notify process and will engage with schools regarding where specialist provision is best placed for the 2026/27 school year.

Once the NCSE has fully collated and assessed this information, the NCSE will be in a position to engage with schools across the country to open new special classes. The NCSE will also have due regard to any vacant places in existing special classes in an area and any places that will become available through the normal movement of children leaving primary or post-primary school.

I would like to stress that the NCSE will continue to support all children made known to them after this date also, however, it is important for planning purposes that we set an earlier timeframe for which the NCSE has as much local knowledge and detail as possible in order to plan what new provision is required.

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 as to where new specialist provision is required.