Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

First, I did not see the programme yesterday evening. One has to be objective and there has to be balance in the assessment of any story. The last five years has witnessed extraordinary expansion and investment in special education, which the Deputy has ignored completely in his comments. There is no excuse for, and I do not accept in any way, any child being in a cupboard, a stairwell or whatever. The fact is there has been an 87% increase in the number of special education places in five years. It is quite extraordinary expansion. In the 2026-27 year, we now have 34,000 students who will be enrolled in special classes and special schools. That is an increase of 86% since 2020. There are about 4,324 additional special classes, up 136% since 2020. Staff numbers are up 43% since then. We now have 26,000 SNAs compared with what we had five years ago - I went through it here before - at nearly half that. We have 22,500 special education teachers. Sixteen new special schools have opened, with four opening in Citywest, Balbriggan, Bray and Monasterevin.
The Deputy mentioned the School of the Divine Child. I pleaded with its previous principal and board to move out to the Enable Ireland site in Wilton. It was a brand-new site adjacent to a wonderfully modern new therapeutic centre. The school refused. It was the obvious move that should have happened. The Department was ready to fully fund it. The existing facilities in the school at Lavanagh are not satisfactory at all. I know it very well. I do not accept the criticism on that front. It was a terrible mistake made in not availing of the opportunity to go to a new site next to therapeutic facilities with the Department fully funding it and so on. That site is still there. In fact, I was trying to get two special schools out there, including St. Gabriel's, and Enable Ireland had agreed. There was a dispute between Enable Ireland and the school board on the question. That was a mistake. I did not see the programme last night, but the outcome of that mistake is the facilities the children now have in the School of the Divine Child. That is my view and I hold to it very strongly. It is easy to pick out individual cases. The fact is there has been a very strong, comprehensive provision.
Regarding the parents notify system, I acknowledge that too many parents have to fight too often to get places.
The onus should be on the system, the NCSE and schools to facilitate parents who apply. The parents notify system has now allowed us to have significantly better planning. Again, there were people against that last summer. People were giving out that we had opened it in July. Close to 7,860 children applied through that process seeking a special education place. That is more than double the number seeking places in 2025. Again, we opened about 587 new special classes at the beginning of this month alone to deal with that. There is significant expansion and investment. There is also increased demand, but we are getting there earlier for parents in terms of them notifying us much earlier on and then us working hard to try to get special classes in place. I will come back to the school in Stapolin later.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29