Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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234. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way in which the new Inclusive Education for All strategy 2025-2028 will address barriers faced by students with additional needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60703/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The new Inclusive Education for All strategy will focus over the next three years on the key areas of supporting children and young people with special educational needs and tackling educational disadvantage. The establishment of an Education Therapy Service will be a key part of the plan.

Our plan will place a focus on fostering inclusion for all children and young people in our schools and youth services and ensuring that children and young people are valued and involved in shaping their education and development experiences.

Continued progress in these areas will not be possible without a high quality, and dedicated education and youth services workforce. The biggest influence on outcomes in our education system is the quality of teaching and the quality of learning. The Department will take measures to support our teachers, including earlier access to permanent contracts, investment in teacher education and professional development, and I will ensure we identify further actions to empower school leadership, with training, mentoring and resources.

Furthermore, on 16 January 2024, The National Council for Special Education published its policy advice paper on special schools and classes entitled “An Inclusive education for an Inclusive society”. This follows a request in October 2018, by the then Minister for Education and Skills to advise on the educational provision for students in special schools and classes and to make recommendations on the future provision required to enable them to achieve better outcomes.

The NCSE policy advice sought to consider how existing good practices could be incorporated and further developed in the design of an inclusive education system where children have the opportunity to learn in their local school with their siblings and peers.

The policy paper recommends progressive realisation of an inclusive education system for Ireland. It is envisaged that this system will be informed by, and aligned to, the relevant articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) which Ireland ratified in 2018.

The advice recommends a phased transition with incremental changes taking place over many years with special schools and classes remaining an important placement option for students and parents. The advice recommends that the Department of Education and the NCSE should seek the evolution of an education system that is configured specifically for the Irish context. This emerging system should have regard to existing good practices in the education system and the boosting of current resourcing with significant increases in psychological and therapeutic supports.

There is a strong base from which to develop an inclusive education system in Ireland with investment in special education amounting to €2.9 billion in 2025, his figure builds on previous years and represents over a quarter of the education budget. While the amount expended each year is a budgetary issue, the adoption of a more inclusive education system doesn’t mean there needs to be significant additional spending. We have 20,000 teachers working in specialist settings at the moment. We’ve a similar number of SNAs. The challenge is to ensure that model of inclusion it develops for our system is one which builds on existing good practice and existing resources.

Further research, engagement with stakeholders and other government departments and agencies, piloting, trialling, and evaluation will comprise key components of the department’s response to the policy advice over the coming years.

However, it is important to note that several actions being undertaken or planned for the near future by the department address aspects of the NCSE recommendations. Many of these actions are at an early stage of development and will take considerable time to deliver. However, cumulatively, they address the identified need for the adoption of a more inclusive education system and could be viewed as key enablers of such a system.

Following on from an application from the Department of Education, The European Commission’s DG Reform Office has sanctioned support under the Technical Support Instrument (TSI). TSI is an EU programme that provides tailor-made technical expertise to EU member states to design and implement reforms. This consultancy support will assist in shaping the Department’s response to the policy advice. This is very welcome and should provide us with the necessary expertise to develop the model of inclusion which will work best for our system.

With the support of the European Commission’s Technical Support Instrument, Ireland aims to develop a model of inclusive education that will improve access of children and students with special educational needs to mainstream classes and schools, in primary and post-primary education. Ireland aims to increase the capacity to design and implement specialist provision to support inclusive education in mainstream settings, improve teachers’ capacity to ensure quality inclusive education, as well as to promote stakeholders’ awareness towards inclusive education.

The Department is committed to building a fully inclusive education system where every pupil feels valued, supported and can reach their full potential. This will be progressed through the publication of three documents which will play an important role in shaping the vision and delivery of education for all children and young people, including those with special or additional needs.

These include:

• An implementation plan arising from the Education for People with Special Educational Needs review
• A workforce development plan for Special Needs Assistants
• A roadmap for inclusion following intensive engagement with stakeholders and advocacy groups. This document, which is being prepared with the assistance of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education through the EU’s Technical Support Instrument (TSI) process, seeks to address the recommendations of policy advice on inclusive education published by the National Council for Special Education.