Special Educational Needs
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-29
============================================================

Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel

I thank the Minister of State for his response. It still does not deal with the point that students are treated differently in special school settings from how they are treated in mainstream school settings. The notice this family were given was poor. They were not aware of this rule. All parents should be made aware of the rule much earlier than going into the final year of school. They have been left in a state of limbo in which they are not sure whether their son will stay in school for another year or will have to transition.
The Minister of State pointed out the different post-school options students may take and it is good to see they are being considered for students in special schools. For too long, students left special schools without any kind of qualification and nothing more was expected of them than to go into a day service of some description. Many students are capable of going on and progressing in different courses and we need to make sure they can avail of different options open to them. However, the notice for the appeal and the rule both need to be looked at and addressed. It is unfair in this instance.

---

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/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29