William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)
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872. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the means by which her Department is tracking progress on the 100+ actions in Education Plan 2025, particularly those involving education therapy and school transport services; the benchmarks being used; the means by which the Department plans to resource delivery; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [59800/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The Education Plan 2025 is the annual plan setting out the key high level areas of work for my Department. It is structured around the five education pillars set out in the Programme for Government. The Education Plan contains 118 priority actions for delivery in 2025, which demonstrate the breadth of the work programme, and the commitment to delivery across the sector, to ensure that, together with partners, my department facilitates children and young people, through learning, to achieve their full potential.

My department is committed to publishing biannual progress reports on the Education Plan at mid-year and end of year. The most-recent mid-year progress report is available at .

The Programme for Government 2025 commits to the introduction of an Education Therapy Service (ETS). This service will begin in special schools and gradually extend to special classes and mainstream settings, ensuring that all children can access essential therapies in a timely and effective way. The allocation of €16 million in Budget 2026 will support the continued rollout of this service, including the recruitment of additional occupational therapists (OT) and speech and language therapists (SLT), along with the necessary resources and supports. These therapeutic services will:

Provide therapeutic supports across a multi–tiered model working in a universal, targeted and individualised way to maximize every child and young person’s participation and potential in education.

This is a transformative initiative, one that will make a real difference in the lives of children and families. It is anticipated that the ETS will commence in 45 special schools at a later stage in the 2025/26 school year will be supported by a panel of 90 therapists comprising of senior and staff grade. The NCSE is currently preparing a large-scale recruitment campaign which is anticipated to go live in the coming weeks. Further roll out of the service will occur on a phased basis. The delivery of this support to the initial 45 special schools has been identified as a key benchmark in track progress, as will the subsequent rollout to additional special schools over 2026/2027 schools year.

It is acknowledged that there is a lack of therapists available nationally. To increase the supply of therapists the department has been working closely with DFHERIS to increase the number of therapy training places. An additional 30 training places across OT and SLT were introduced into the system in the 2025/2026 academic year. A key aspect of increasing training places is the availability of practice education. It is planned that the ETS will provide a number of practice education placements in addition to placements available through the Health Service Executive.

A phased implementation of the School Transport Review’s recommendations began at the start of the 2024/2025 school year where the department began testing the feasibility of a number of approaches through a series of pilot programmes; these pilot programmes are held in conjunction with the National Transport Authority, the Department of Transport and Bus Éireann.

A total of 14 pilot projects are underway in the current school year. These pilots are being evaluated to provide valuable insights into the impact of increased demand on the scheme, the potential for integrating public transport with school transport services, and opportunities to promote more sustainable modes of transport.

It is intended to continue current pilots for the upcoming school year. They will be monitored during the year and a further evaluation will take place at the end of the 2025/2026 school year. The findings from these evaluations will guide the planning and implementation needed for a national rollout of a revised School Transport Scheme.

Implementation of the recommendations of the review will continue to be planned subject to resources being available to meet the increased demand.