Special Educational Needs Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-22 ============================================================ Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. The ask is fairly clear. Of the 168 extra classes that were announced, I imagine a lot of them are in schools that have the physical capacity and, potentially, have classrooms that can be changed and adapted. There are some. Clearly, the Stapolin Educate Together school is one where it is neither practical nor possible to incorporate a class without a new build. There are situations and this is one of them. In order for this project to proceed, funding must be made available to build a new classroom. The school would probably be delighted if the Minister of State, in his capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for special education, visited the school because he would get a flavour of the work that the school has done on the ground very successfully to date and learn of its plans for the future. I am sure that the school would be open to having more than two extra classes if possible. Perhaps a visit could be considered in the Minister of State's diary. I thank the Minister of State for his constant engagement with me on this issue. I know from the many years he was Chair of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters of his forensic knowledge of this area, his determination and his absolute commitment to an equal society. As somebody with a disability, I get great encouragement and zealousness from his passion and commitment. Therefore, I believe that special education is in very good hands. Hopefully, when this term is up in four years' time, we will see huge changes in terms of access to education for people with various disabilities, there will be equality and opportunities, and we will have a society that has a level playing pitch for everybody. That is all anybody wants. People do not want any special favours. They just want a level playing pitch. In conclusion, I hope that we will see a physical build in the Educate Together school in Baldoyle. I commend Margaret Fitzpatrick, principal, and all of the staff for their ongoing commitment and the work they do. I do this in memory of my old friend Michael Fitzpatrick, who passed away many years ago. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:32+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-22