Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-04
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Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

I want to be clear that whatever modules or extensions are needed in the short term to increase capacity at the current location should happen without delay. The Minister of State mentioned that the Minister visited the school and, of course, she was very welcome. I was in the vicinity when the parents of the children who attend had a discussion with her. They had one ask, which was to make sure there is a permanent school that has capacity for future demand. The truth is that successive Governments have been far too slow in delivering special education. The Minister of State's answer alludes to this. What has been done is that Governments have been responding rather than planning. I am asking that in respect of the special school in Monaghan, let us plan. Let us not make the same mistakes as have been made in countless other areas, where interim schools have been put in place with extensions and prefabricated building on prefabricated building to deal with demand at any given time, rather than recognising there is a need to plan for the long term. Demand for this school will only increase. The needs in terms of capacity will increase. Do not wait until the current site is completely exhausted before starting the entire process of finding and identifying a site and going through the whole process, which, as we know in this instance, can take years.
We need a sea change. We have seen it with the SNA debacle. We have seen it with secondary schools fighting, as recently as this week, for additional special needs classes, even though the demand was apparent years ago because the children were coming through the primary sector. We know in this instance that the demand for the special school will only increase. What is required is a bit of forethought. I ask the Minister of State to ensure the NCSE does not only deal with the urgency of the immediate, which is important, but also deals with the prospects for the future.

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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