Special Educational Needs Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West I welcome the group from Scoil Eoin Naofa in County Westmeath. I hope they enjoy their trip to Leinster House. It is always great for schools to visit. The Senator raised a number of matters. The 1 October deadline was to make sure that we had better sight of the number of children who need special educational supports within the school system, and that we would have better planning for that. One week after my appointment last year, I brought back the date from 1 February to 1 October. We are also engaging with every and any family who contacted the NCSE since 1 October, and working with those families to ensure their needs are met. The 1 October date was to give a sight of this. A number of families contacted us after 1 October, and we are continuing to engage clearly with those families. Right across the education system, work that is going on in schools. As well as anybody else in these Houses, I understand what is going on with the school communities, the leadership in the school communities, the SNAs, the teachers and all who make up the school communities. We are working day in and day out to do the very best for the children in the schools. There are some remarkable stories and remarkable examples of best practice that I have seen in the last while across the country. The NCSE is charged with providing for special educational needs. It is important to make one point. We are setting out to do the right thing. I firmly believe this applies to my own position and right across the Government. We have had many detailed discussions, not just this weekend, but every week as to how we are going to ensure that the need out there, which is constantly growing, is met. The 1,700 SNAs will be employed from 1 September 2026. There are no questions and no ifs or buts. It is in the budget for it. All mainstream, special schools and special classes will see an increase in the number of the SNAs who are employed in each sector. We have to accept that and understand it. On scapegoating, politicians and Ministers will take that but those who are within the National Council for Special Education, SENOs and those teams are working to the best of their ability to give the information back. We have now paused the decisions that were made because we are doing a complete review of it. Before any further decisions are taken, we have to have clear understandings in terms of a number of schools that have lost a number of SNAs and get the reasons for that. We will update the Houses immediately when we have that. We started discussions on that yesterday and there are a number of meetings this morning and into the afternoon today. We are very serious about making sure about this. I understand the families. I have met the families and the students, not just across the country in my role over the past 12 months but right throughout my political journey. I have been engaged in special education and have been working on behalf of families. I continue to do that. I genuinely believe that all who are concerned about it have a very clear understanding of what we want to do, including the National Council for Special Education, the Department for education, me , the Minister, Deputy Naughton on her appointment in November and, prior to that, the Minister, Deputy McEntee. We want to do the right thing by every child. If we are investing properly in primary and post-primary education, it will lead to the best outcomes for those children into the future. The Senator knows my bona fides on this matter, but I assure her that we are taking the issues on it desperately seriously. She mentioned the school and classroom. There are over 300 special classes, which are months earlier than last year. A number of additional special classes will be announced across the country over the next weeks and months. Every single one of them will be operational and populated by children who need extra educational support for their time in primary and post-primary school. --- 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/2026-02-18/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-18