Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I reassure the Deputy that the NCSE, the Department and ourselves meet on a weekly basis. We have 300 extra classes - 301 to be specific - sanctioned this year for the 2026-27 school year. That is four months earlier than it was previously because, as I outlined, we want to ensure that we have certainty and give information earlier to families. That is very welcome but we also have to work through a number of tranches of special classes to be announced over the next number of weeks. I assure the Deputy we are looking at notifications prior to 1 October. I explained why we brought 1 October forward in the summer and I thank the Deputy's party for welcoming it because it gave a sense we were going to have better planning. I reassure him that we will be working with those notifications both prior to and after 1 October to make sure we have the best possible supports in place.
There is a huge demand for special education teachers, support teachers and SNAs within the system. We have almost 25,000 SNAs working within educational services at the moment. We need to make sure that students who need specialised education are getting the best possible supports. I genuinely believe that the State will now put in the proper supports while they are of schoolgoing age. Last week, we announced education therapy services for 45 special schools. The intention and decision taken by the Government was that that would be rolled out to special classes and on to mainstream schools to ensure that children who have additional educational needs get the best possible supports at school time. This is because it will serve not just the students and their families but society well into the future.

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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