Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
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John Connolly (FF), Galway West

I very much welcome the formal announcing of the national therapy service in education involving the placement of occupational therapists and speech therapists in special schools. I particularly welcome its introduction in two schools in Galway, Ábalta Special School and St. Joseph's Special School in Newcastle. I also welcome the announcement of 301 new classes for children with additional needs in the mainstream setting. However, the lists that we get do not define the category of class and I am concerned that we are not opening up enough classes for children with developmental language disorder, DLD. These are classes that children attend for two years and then they return to their own mainstream class or school. We need more of these classes. Early intervention is important in this area.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10