The four issues brought to my attention prior to coming to the House concern St. Mochta’s, Monksland and Shelagh national schools and car parking issues at the new build for Ardee Educate Together primary school. The Deputy raised other issues that I might come back to in my closing remarks. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The Department of education has invested a serious amount of money in the sectoral investment plan for the period 2026 to 2030, which involves a strong emphasis on maximising existing…

I take the point. There is ongoing engagement. On the Educate Together-----

That project has been completed. As for the other two projects, one is moving through. Both of the applications were made in the autumn of last year. I will ask the Department to ensure there is a timely discussion with them. The Deputy made a point regarding school accommodation and children being located in buildings that are not fit for purpose. Children are in primary school for eight crucial years of their lives. We have to ensure that we have the best possible services available for them. The Deputy referred …

A script will be handed around, but I will deal with the issue without the script. I thank all Members for their engagement and the seriousness with which they are treating this issue. I take on board all of the matters that have been raised. I will talk about the policy first. Since the 2014 document, more than 12,000 extra SNAs have been recruited and are working in the system. We have expanded considerably. There is a view going around that we have gone back to the 2014 document and that this is where the cuts a…

The basis on which we are delivering special needs assistants is under the 2014 circular, which has allowed us to grow the SNA workforce by nearly 60%. It is a whole-of-government approach. It is a very serious issue for families and school communities. We are all engaged. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, and I have had multiple conversations and meetings over the past number of days and weeks, right over the weekend. We are engaging extremely carefully as to how we will proceed. We had a number of meetings this morn…

I thank the Deputy for the question and will speak a little on the information I received from the Department. In relation to widows, widowers and the surviving pension, we have done some work on expanding the scheme for civil partners or cohabiting partners over the past while as well. The challenge is when somebody is widowed, a man or woman, they work and then get ill themselves, going from two incomes to one. Ordinarily, if they got sick, they would be entitled to illness benefit, with the PRSI paid. This issue…

The Deputy mentioned the carer's allowance. The half-rate carer's allowance was brought in. Former Deputy Joe Callanan from east Galway and I put a motion before the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party many years ago regarding the half-rate carer's allowance. We had been banging our heads off a stone wall for some time but Séamus Brennan, the then Minister, accepted our bona fides, particularly as regards cases where one person on a pension was caring for an adult son or daughter. Illness benefit is paid for a short pe…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. He has outlined a specific issue on the floor of the Dáil. I do not have the exact details of the case, but I will speak to it. If the Deputy could furnish the details afterwards, I will certainly do what I can to help. The woman the Deputy spoke about is doing extraordinary work. She has a 22-year-old, a 25-year-old and a 17-year-old. Looking at the sums the Deputy quoted, we seriously have to ask ourselves whether we are getting value for money. More importantly, are we g…

The case the Deputy has outlined is extremely disturbing. At the core is the care that is being provided and the concerns of the mother, who has a vocation, about the care she is getting. That is one side of it. The other side of it is the amount of money the State is spending and that figure of €74 versus €18.50. A lot of section 38 and section 39 organisations around the country have invested and provided care for people with disabilities for many years. They have provided massive value for money. Every cent they…

I welcome the opportunity to speak about Tiernascragh National School and am delighted that the Senator mentioned Kiskeam, the centre of the universe. Joking aside, I welcome the opportunity to take this issue on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, who is responsible for the capital programmes. As the Senator is aware, Tiernascragh National School in County Galway is a mixed Catholic school, located within the Portumna school planning area. It has 53 pupils enrolled for the 2025-26 scho…

I take the point in relation to community centres being a short-term solution. This discommodes communities in a major way. Community centres are hubs for social events and family gatherings. I have been with school communities in my area that have used them in the short term, but they are never satisfactory because permanent solutions are needed. We do not need a short-term solution. We need to look at the issue. The Senator might come back to me after this discussion with regard to the enrolment for September nex…

I welcome the group from Scoil Eoin Naofa in County Westmeath. I hope they enjoy their trip to Leinster House. It is always great for schools to visit. The Senator raised a number of matters. The 1 October deadline was to make sure that we had better sight of the number of children who need special educational supports within the school system, and that we would have better planning for that. One week after my appointment last year, I brought back the date from 1 February to 1 October. We are also engaging with eve…

In relation to the value of the SNAs, absolutely. When I started out on my political journey, it was people who were on community employment, CE, schemes who were providing the SNA support within schools. A decision was taken by the now Taoiseach, then the Minister for education, back in 1997 or 1998 about SNAs. We have grown that to almost 25,000 SNAs across this country. In any comparison with any of the other developed countries in Europe or elsewhere, we are way ahead in terms of the support we are giving into …

The other point on it is that we have almost 25,000 SNAs. In any of the debate over the past week, we were talking about less than 1% of the SNAs across the country. We take into consideration everything that has been said to us and every discussion. We are working on that. Last night and again today, we had a number of meetings, and these will be ongoing over the next number of days. Every decision we will be making will be child-centred to make sure we are giving the best opportunity for children, not just to go …

The Government is committed to continuing the acceleration of the provision of additional special class and special school places for 2026-27 by providing at least 3,000 new spaces in locations which are best meeting the existing and future demand. The provision of timely information is a key requirement to support the forward planning of new special education provision. Budget 2026 provides funding for over 400 new special classes and at least 400 new special school places for the 2026-27 school year. The NCSE has…

The NCSE is currently working through to make sure that the letters of eligibility are being issued to those who contacted it after 1 October. The Taoiseach is right in reflecting what both the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and I have seen as the huge increase in the number of children who have contacted the NCSE, both prior to and post 1 October. To reiterate, 1 October was hugely significant in order that we have clear vision of the demand that was within the system. Last year, it was 1 February. We have an awful lo…

On the seriousness with which the NCSE and the Department are taking the numbers, we have worked throughout - right up to almost Christmas, to 23 December - to make sure we had sight of what figures were and how we are going to work on it. At the end of this discussion, there are children and there are families and it is hugely important we give certainty to them. As the Deputy quite rightly acknowledged, we brought back the date to 1 October. There is huge investment in special education to ensure the needs of chi…

I thank the Deputy for providing me with the opportunity to respond. As he knows, this Government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to achieve their full potential. The primary responsibility for the education of all pupils, including those with special educational needs, is the class teacher or subject teacher. The special education teaching allocation provides schools with additional teaching hours to support the learning needs of students in mainstream classes based on thei…

We must accept that we have put a huge amount of resources into special education, particularly for SNAs and SETs. In this year's budget, it was one of the sectors that got the greatest increase. We are deeply committed. Whether in mainstream, special classes or special schools, the strength of our special educational system is based upon SNAs. They do amazing work in school communities. They enable children to flourish and benefit from the education system. On the backs of SNAs and SETs, we have built special educ…

I take the point. If I may be a little flippant, I might contest that Bweeng is in the Cork North-West constituency, rather than Cork North-Central. That is only a flippant point.