Mark Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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426. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on an application by a school for an ASD unit (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62763/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is the statutory body responsible for the provision of special education and allocating supports for children with special educational needs.

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.

Of the 407 new special classes sanctioned for the 2025/26 school year 17 were established in County Kildare, 14 at primary and 3 at post-primary level. This brings to 148 the number of special classes currently in operation in the county. There are also 6 special schools in County Kildare with approximately 360 students enrolled.

In order to support the 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 families 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.

Budget 2026 has provided funding for 3,000 new special educational places within our education system and extensive research was completed over the summer to identify schools with available accommodation in which new classes can be established. The NCSE is now matching these schools with known local demand based on the parent's notify process.

In order to ensure new special classes can open as quickly as possible the NCSE prioritise working with medium and larger primary schools who do not already have a special class and have available accommodation to accommodate new special class. This approach maximises the use of existing space which can be reconfigured efficiently while also ensuring that new provision continues to be established. It also increases the number of schools with special classes providing parents with greater choice and reducing the distances that some children are travelling to access a special class place.

However, as in other years where schools have no available accommodation, particularly at post-primary level and there is known demand in a local area, my department will continue to provide additional classroom accommodation to provide necessary places.

I would like to stress that the NCSE will continue to support all children made known to them after the October deadline 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.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
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427. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update for the provision of a special education/autism class at a school (details supplied); the timeline for the delivery of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62772/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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A major building project for the school referred to by the Deputy is being delivered as part of my Department's ADAPT Programme which uses a professional external Programme Manager to co-ordinate and drive the Integrated Project Team to achieve the best possible timeframe for the project through the stages of Architectural Planning, to Tender and Construction.

This ADAPT 4 Programme – Programme Innovate will be led by Integrated Project Teams (IPT’s), consisting of highly skilled and experienced design professionals, architects, engineers, project managers, quantity surveyors and various other consultants to deliver the projects.

The brief for the project is the delivery of a new 8 classroom primary school, with accommodation and 2 classrooms for children with special educational needs at Swords, Co Dublin.

This project is at an early stage of architectural planning - stage 1 - where the IPT carry out site surveys and initial sketch schemes are prepared. The stage 1 report is anticipated to be received by my Department in late Quarter 4 of 2025, with a meeting of stakeholders to be arranged upon receipt and review of the report.

It is not possible to provide a timeframe for the progression of the project to tender and construction stages until such time as the necessary statutory approvals have been secured.

The school is currently located in modular accommodation at an interim location in Swords, Co, Dublin, pending delivery of the permanent accommodation for the school. Two additional classrooms are currently being installed which will bring the school to an eight-classroom school in the 2026/27 school year. Given site constraints, there is no provision for a classroom for children with special educational needs at the interim location.

Since 2020, my department has invested over €6 billion in our schools throughout the country under the National Development Plan, involving the completion of over 1,300 school building projects. In addition, re-purposing and optimisation of existing accommodation capacity across the school estate has been a key enabler of timely, local provision of special class capacity in a way that supports best practice in inclusion and integration. Circa 80% of new special classes in 2025/26 are being facilitated in repurposed classroom accommodation.

Government support for this investment, including by way of supplementary capital funding, has delivered real benefits for school communities. Supplementary capital funding of €210 million approved by Government has brought the total capital allocation for 2025 for my department to €1.6 billion

In July the Government announced a capital allocation of €7.55 billion for the Department of Education and Youth for the period 2026-2030 under the National Development Plan. As part of this NDP allocation my department will place a strong emphasis on provision for children with special educational needs, with a particular focus on meeting annual school place needs. In relation to project rollout for Large Scale projects and Additional School Accommodation scheme projects, the approach will be to continue to maximise the capacity of the existing school estate as much as possible in the first instance and provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project rollout over the course of 2026 to 2030 period to meet the most urgent and prioritised needs. It is planned that circa 80 school building projects will progress to construction across 2026 and 2027 as part of a 2-year rolling programme.

All Government departments are expected to publish their sectoral NDP Implementation Plans this year. My department’s plan will optimise outputs from the NDP allocations, with a strong focus on maximising existing school capacity, progressing priority projects where local capacity across schools in the area is insufficient, and ensuring delivery that is affordable, offers value for money, and meets functional needs.

My Department will keep the school and patron body informed of the progression of this project.