Special Educational Needs
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-21
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Fiona O'Loughlin (FF), Administrative Panel

I add my voice of welcome to our distinguished guests. I note that we have representatives from New Jersey. The small town I am from, Rathangan, has officially twinned with Freehold because Bruce Springsteen's great grandmother came from Rathangan. I look forward to catching up with them later and perhaps helping to organise a visit to Rathangan, which is a great little spot.
I will turn to the question at issue. I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is here. He is doing an excellent job in a very difficult situation with particular constraints. I want to talk to him about St. Anne's Special School in Ballymany, The Curragh, and to request a clear and definitive update on the timeline for its long-awaited rebuild. St. Anne's Special School was established in 1967 by Elizabeth Bermingham and her husband, Michael, who did wonderful work to help to set up KARE for the young people of Kildare, parts of Offaly and parts of Wicklow, with intellectual disabilities. The school moved to its present location in 1974. Generations of young people have gone through the school, including my own brother, Cathal. Cathal and I, as well as another brother, Brian, went to a fundraiser for the parents' council on Friday last in Newbridge. It was lovely to catch up with very dedicated parents and the school community there.
St. Anne's is a vital education facility. As I said, it serves children and young people aged four to 18 with moderate to severe and profound general learning disabilities. It provides an essential service not just to families within the Newbridge-Kildare-Curragh catchment but also further afield. The conditions within which the students are being educated are absolutely unacceptable. One issue is funding. The current funding is no longer sufficient to meet even the school's basic operational and utility costs. As a result, some of the funding and resources intended for educational supports are being diverted to cover core expenses. This has led to shortages in critical classroom materials and sensory requirement, together with reductions in cleaning services. There are also the challenges that every school now has, namely, the rising cost of energy and insurance.
The school building itself and the existing facilities are not fit for purpose. They are overcrowded and there is a lack of adequate accessibility. There are safety concerns. There is only one accessible toilet available for up to 40 senior students. Heating systems are unreliable and parts of the premises are unusable. Indeed, the school was forced to close during a cold spell last winter due to heating failure.
Planning permission for a new school building was granted by Kildare County Council in March 2022 and that is valid until next March. However, the project has yet to progress beyond stage 2B. We know the school is included in the national development plan pipeline but we still need to have a timeline for the project moving to tender and then from tender to construction. It is a very urgent situation. I acknowledge the excellent work that was done with St. Mark's Special School and the fact that another new special school will open in September in Monasterevin. That is all incredibly welcome. It is essential, however, that along with that progress, we have progress at St. Anne's school. I am, therefore, looking forward to the Minister of State's update today.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21