I thank Deputy O'Donoghue for the question. I will update the Deputy and the House on the current situation regarding the building project for St. Joseph's Secondary School and Gaelscoil Ros Eo in Rush, County Dublin. The delivery of this campus project has been devolved to Catholic Education, an Irish Schools Trust, CEIST. The brief for St. Joseph’s Secondary School includes the provision of a 1,000-pupil post-primary school, including a four-classroom special education base. The brief for Gaelscoil Ros Eo include…

I understand this is the Deputy's former school where he has taught, so he knows first-hand the challenges being faced in the school communities there. He has outlined it in his opening remarks. I reassure the Deputy that the project is at stage 2B and CEIST has advised that the stage 2B report is ongoing. It is important there is no delay at any stage. The Deputy outlined the issue with prefabricated buildings. We have had a huge investment across the education sector over the past number of years and into the fut…

It is like being in a meeting in Cork North-West. I am delighted to see how professional an operation it is. I am delighted to be serving with the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach as well. Deputy Heneghan raised the issue in relation to disadvantage in the north-east inner city. I thank the Deputy for his engagement on education matters in the role that I hold at the moment. I urge all Deputies and all public representatives to continue engaging on education because it is hugely important for the future of our country. Educ…

I thank the Deputy for the question and the energy he has put into it. The DEIS programme has been hugely successful right across the country, both in urban and rural Ireland, to ensure that we are tackling disadvantage at its core. Retaining students within the education system is a huge priority for the Government. It is huge for Government policy and for my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, and me as well. We are acutely aware of the challenges that exist. The DEIS programme has shown up the c…

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. We all have connections to school communities, be they within our own communities or, indeed, across the country. It is hugely important that political representation continues to engage with school communities because they are the bedrock of the future of our society. The Senator is right to say that special education is very important to me. Since I took up this role, I have worked with the then Minister, Deputy McEntee, over the last number of months and now with the n…

I thank the Senator, and Mary and her team. It is a great tribute to the Senator's friend as well. I acknowledge that. I also thank the Senator for his kind words on the job at hand. On the specific school, I confirm that the Department and the NCSE are continuing to liaise with the school authorities on additional classes. We are trying to make sure we have classes within existing structures across education systems. We have many challenges in that regard but the Department and the NCSE will continue to engage to …

On my way down we were discussing the odds that Deputy Heneghan would raise the issue. I assure him that a lot of work is going on in this regard right across the education system. I will address the matter in response to the matter raised by Deputy Whitmore. I thank Deputy Heneghan for raising this important topic, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. While the Minister has responsibility for policy and overall funding for public transport, neither he nor his officials…

I will continue with the response later if that is okay with the Deputy.

I addressed that issue during Commencement matters in Seanad Éireann this morning as well. I assure the Deputy that I am aware of the issue.

Regarding the 80 and the 130 bus routes, it is of course acknowledged that these changes will require some passengers to take different routes. Following on from the discussions with Dublin City Council, in 2027 and in advance of the closure of Dame Street between College Green and South Great George's Street to facilitate the College Green pedestrian plaza scheme planned by Dublin City Council, it is proposed that this temporary rerouting be removed. In this event, route 80 and route 130 will then be combined into…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue because it allows me to outline where things are at. Two weeks ago, we announced the first tranche of the special classes. There will be multiples of those over the next number of weeks. It is not the case that it is just the number of classes that were announced as opening two weeks ago; there are a number of them. To reassure the Deputy, we are aware of the challenges in Wicklow, both on a special school and special class basis. I will deal with this in two pieces, if the …

I note the issue the Deputy has with the family who are looking for a letter of eligibility. If she shares with me details of that specific case, we will take it up and respond to the Deputy, rather than giving a carte blanche reply. It is important that we are very clear in our public statements that we are working extremely hard to make sure children who were notified before 1 October last have provision. We are also aware of the challenges that have arisen since 1 October. We have to make sure we do the right th…

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for raising this issue on behalf of St. Brendan's College in Belmullet. I always appreciate it when a Deputy raises an issue about which he or she has lived experience, in this case, family members in the school in question. I acknowledge the genuine tribute the Deputy has paid to the team in St. Brendan's College, as well as the huge amount of work that is going on across the education system. The Deputy asks what we can do in this case. We are spending a huge amount of money on special…

It was remiss of me not to mention at the outset that the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Pa Daly, raised an issue in relation to the HSE and the Department of education. I will follow up on that from our side as well about getting the Donal Walsh video circulated. On St. Brendan's College, I will go back to the planning and building unit and we will see where that is at. I take the point about funding. The cost of building is going to increase, has increased dramatically over the past while and will continue to increas…

I thank the Deputy for the genuineness of the question. Without filling it out, she has gone directly to the core of the issue. I will respond accordingly. We have had a huge amount of investment in special education, which I am glad to see, over the past number of years and last year we expanded that. This time last year, after being appointed, the deadline was 1 February. We were then correlating and getting the information in February and it was March or April before we were in any position to help families or g…

I would like to pay tribute to Miceál, who is the principal of that school, and the teams in all the special schools across the country - the teachers, SNAs and all the additional people who work there. I was at a special school in the south of Ireland in September. As I was walking along the corridor, one of the team there was using a measuring tape because they were putting together a chair out of a box for a student. There was no notice taken of it when I stopped to discuss it with them. It was part of their wor…

We are acutely aware of the challenges in post-primary education. Primary education, by and large, has stepped up to the plate. We are acutely aware of the challenges right across the country, not just in Laois. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, and I are working closely to make sure we have places for children in 2026. However, we are acutely aware of the challenges across County Laois and across the country at post-primary level. I welcome the engagement of the patrons and other bodies with the Department and the NC…

The Government is committed to the accelerated provision of additional special class and special school places next year by providing at least 3,000 new places in locations where it best meets existing and future demand. The provision of timely information is a key requirement to support the forward planning of new special education provision. The National Council for Special Education is the statutory body tasked with sanctioning new special education provision in our schools. The council is reviewing and assessin…

On the deadline, there was a huge amount of concern, particularly over recent years, that we were not planning properly for special classes and special schools in an early and a timely fashion. We brought forward the 1 October deadline and announced that earlier this year to bring greater clarity and certainty because families last year, particularly in the March-April period, were fierce frustrated not knowing what the future held in education terms for their children. We brought forward the 1 October deadline. Th…

For the assessment of need and because of the challenges we face, there is no doubt but that we need to move away from the model we have. We need to get therapists to children faster and not be tied up in too much bureaucracy. There has been a huge push to have assessments of need. Right now, you do not need an assessment of need to access education. A lot of work has been done, and I know that officials are meeting education partners today to bring clarity on the very question asked by the Deputy. We will certainl…