Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail)
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355. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the justification for the lack of therapeutic supports, such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and psychology within school environments, leaving schools as ‘de facto’ providers without necessary resources; her plans to address this ongoing issue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13310/26]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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In line with the programme for government commitment, the Education Therapy Service (ETS) has been established as a critical and important support for children and young people in their school environment. The ETS will be delivered by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) and is an additional support for children with special education needs. Its purpose is to supplement and not replace existing children’s health and disability services.

On 6th February 2026, the Department of Education and Youth announced the phased rollout of ETS. It is important to highlight that this is the initial phase of the ETS rollout which will occur on a phased basis with a wider roll-out to further special schools within the 2026/2027 school year and a new initiative which will see all schools benefit in the coming years.

The initial phase of the ETS will commence in 45 special schools in this school year. The initial clusters will be based in Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Louth, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Meath, Monaghan, Tipperary, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow.

The NCSE has recently completed a recruitment campaign for Senior and Staff Grade Occupational and Speech and Language Therapists for the initial 16 counties, Panels have been created for the first recruitment campaign and posts are currently being offered with an expectation that there will be some therapists is post in the NCSE in May 2026.

Additionally, the NCSE are undertaking two further recruitment campaigns. The first covers Offaly, Clare, Mayo and Roscommon and was launched on the 10th of March with a closing date of the 31st of March.

Separately, a campaign for Donegal, Kerry, Cavan and Waterford was advertised on Monday 13th of April 2026. A rolling national campaign will continue later in 2026.

In line with the rollout and development of the ETS, we will continue to engage with the HSE on the ETS model of service, to ensure a safe service provision of schools supports between HSE and NCSE services, as NCSE therapists are assigned to schools.

The development and delivery of the ETS will build on the strengths of NCSE’s previous work, delivered through the Educational Therapy Support Service (ETSS) and the School Inclusion Model (SIM) and the Enhanced In-School Therapies pilot, referenced above. The learnings from all these services and initiatives have been incorporated in the design and development of the ETS.

As referenced, the NCSE have been developing an education-based therapy support service known as the ETSS, which will now be subsumed into the ETS. This service currently provides two strands of support to schools, Regional Therapy and Sustained In-School Therapy to both mainstream and special schools.

Sustained in-school support (SIT) is provided to schools for a defined period of 18-24 months in line with the School Inclusion Model. 22 schools in the Eastern region are currently availing of this service and 28 schools in the Western region are receiving support under SIT since September 25.

Regional therapy support provides Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) with follow on/implementation support by NCSE therapists. The focus of this support is to build the capacity of schools and to embed the learning from TPL into their teaching practice, through In-school coaching and co-facilitation of interventions, strategies and resources, with a focus on whole school (Tier 1) and targeted/school support levels (Tier 2) of a multi-tiered system of support. Regional Therapy seminars are available nationally for the 2025/2026 school year.

Separately, The Department of Education and Youth have been working with colleagues in the Department of Children, Disability and Youth and the HSE to develop and strengthen more coherent structures to enable children and young people to access therapeutic supports. It is important to note that the HSE and its agencies continue to provide supports to individual children and their families through the Children’s Disability Network Teams (CDNT)s, Primary Care services and children’s mental health services – CAMHS.

As a result of this engagement, in August 2024, Government announced the special schools’ pilot for enhanced in-school therapy supports, in 16 special schools during the 2024/2025 academic year. This pilot has been extended for the 2025/2026 academic year.

Recruitment for phase 1 of the pilot is nearly complete and recruitment for phase 2 is progressing. However, challenges remain regarding filling of therapy posts in both phases of the pilot, particularly in the Dublin schools. The Health Service Executive and associated agencies are exploring all available options to fill the outstanding posts. This includes offering of posts to existing panels in place, local recruitment campaigns, recruitment through the graduate sponsorship scheme, utilising agency staff for temporary filling and recruiting existing staff, with backfilling of posts. While recruitment efforts are ongoing, the children in each of the 16 special schools continue to receive supports through their local CDNT. Agency therapists are in post in some schools, pending filling of the outstanding posts.

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.