Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-25
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

He did make a false assertion in terms of Government policy. I wanted to make it very clear to him and to the public that our story has been one of expansion in special education. Earlier this year, we brought forward the application date for schools and parents who require special education places for their children. The numbers have increased exponentially this year. Perhaps it is because of the earlier date or there may be other factors. It is over and above anything that was contemplated and, in particular, many more have come in post the October deadline.
There is a constitutional right for every child to have a place in education. Our objective and obligation as a Government is to provide that place. There will be a need for more special classes. There will be huge challenges because of the exponential rise in children this year, compared to last year or previous years, in the data that has come in, both for those who went before the deadline date and those after.

---

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/dail/2026-02-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-25