An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I did not see the programme last evening but have made the point that the expansion in the number of teachers, SNAs, special classes and special schools has been exponential in the past five years. I do not know whether the programme acknowledged that or not but those are the realities. There has been a dramatic expansion in the past two years alone as well as in the past five years and that has created problems in terms of the physical capacities of individual schools. I did not know that a particular school was referenced earlier but that school had an opportunity five or six years ago to have a completely new building on a new site next to a therapeutic centre but it refused it. In some cases, there is a background as to why certain facilities are as they are.
Stapolin is a new school. Clearly it is doing great work in terms of accommodating and facilitating children with additional needs who are coming in. Again, significant investment went into that new school only three years ago.

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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