Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-04
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. Monaghan Community Special School is one of five new special schools established in the most recent school year. It is operating under the patronage of the Cavan Monaghan ETB. The school supports 18 children and young people aged between four and 18 with a diagnosis of autism and complex needs, or students with complex learning needs with a professional recommendation for placement in a special school. The staffing comprises an administrative principal, administrative deputy principal, five class teachers, nine special needs assistants together with ten co-operation hours per week. The new school is located in Castleblayney in a former ETB school property, which was repurposed to facilitate the opening of the new school.
The project was delivered under the Department’s SEN reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme, which facilitated the school opening as quickly as possible. The programme involves the use of the project management support which is designed to enable accommodation to be provided as quickly as possible to help ease the administrative workload for school authorities in relation to management and delivery of the projects. This is a collaborative process between the project manager, school authorities and the Department.
The project manager is overseeing the delivery of residue elements to ensure the successful completion of the project. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, visited the school recently and was very impressed with the facilities, the quality of teaching and the commitment of all the staff and the students under their care. The National Council for Special Education is the statutory body in this regard. Over recent years a huge amount of expansion has taken place not only in special schools but in special classes also. This will continue for the 2026-27 school year. Work is under way on a large number of classes.
With regard to the Monaghan special school, the Deputy is correct that a huge effort was put in by families and their supporters over a continuous time, particularly during the previous Dáil. As chair of the disability committee at the time, I was acutely aware of the challenges there. In his opening statement, he alluded to having special schools in the community because far too many children travel long distances for specialised school places throughout the country. The site in question was a former ETB building, which was repurposed to get it into use in as fast a time as possible to ensure the 18 children could attend. Some of the children travel long distances in Cavan and Monaghan; I am aware of some of the families and have engaged with them on it.
We keep under review needs and requirements, particularly in special education. In recent years we have built almost 16 new special schools and more will follow to meet the capacity. We are keeping under constant consideration the school in Castleblayney. I thank the school authorities for the excellent work they have done in opening and facilitating the families. They have been engaging with the Department and we want to continue this. We keep under constant review the accommodation needs and not only from September to September. We also need to plan to make proper accommodation available for students who require specialist education places such as are offered in special schools.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-04