Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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142. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if figures provided by her Department, to a newspaper are accurate (details supplied); the methodology her Department used to classify a special class place as vacant; if places counted as vacant are fully operational, and appropriately staffed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [68311/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Enabling students with special educational needs to receive an appropriate education is a priority for this Government. It is also a key priority for me, my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

The NCSE is the statutory agency with responsibility for the provision of special education places.

All schools must notify the NCSE when a child or young person is enrolled in a special class or special school place. In addition to this information source, the NCSE also completed an exercise at the start of this school year to examine the number of vacant places in existing special classes. 782 vacant special class places were identified.

These are the confirmed number of available special class places as at the start of this school year as reported by schools to the NCSE.

Please note that children and young people may take up some of these places on an ongoing basis through this school year 2025/2026.

It is accepted that these available places may not always be in an area that some children and young people wish to apply to for the upcoming school year. Parents can contact the NCSE who will provide advice and support to where vacancies are.

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.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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143. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of parents who have submitted a notification to the NCSE, by the 1 October deadline, requesting a special school place for the 2026-2027 school year in Dublin, broken down by postcode, in tabular form. [68312/25]

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 students 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. 407 new special classes were sanctioned for the 2025/26 school year. Five new special schools were also sanctioned for 2025/26.

The NCSE has advised my department just under 3,300 valid notifications were received by mid-February via their new parent notify service. While parents were asked to notify the NCSE by mid-February the NCSE received further notifications after this date. The NCSE advise that a number of special class vacancies remain in every county in the country.

It is expected that a similar number of special class and special school places may need to be provided over each of the next few years, that was provided in recent years. As more and more special classes open in primary schools and as the overall level of enrolments at primary level reduce, it is expected that over time the normal annual progression of students from primary special classes to post-primary will provide a significant number of places each year for younger students seeking a special class placement. At post-primary level, my department has already written to all schools asking them to prepare to provide on average four special classes each.

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.

This new timeline was publicised widely and communicated with schools and special education advocacy groups and parent representative bodies. The NCSE also undertook a lot of work at local level to ensure that families were aware of the timeline and process.

The NCSE report a very significant level of engagement and contact from families before 1 October.

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.