National Council for Special Education
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

The Government is committed to the accelerated provision of additional special class and special school places next year by providing at least 3,000 new places in locations where it best meets existing and future demand. The provision of timely information is a key requirement to support the forward planning of new special education provision.
The National Council for Special Education is the statutory body tasked with sanctioning new special education provision in our schools. The council is reviewing and assessing information provided through the parents' notification process, which closed on 1 October. I understand that the National Council for Special Education will commence sanctioning new special classes for 2026-27 this week, which is four months ahead of last year.
The new timeline of 1 October was publicised widely and communicated to schools, special education advocacy groups and parent representative bodies. The council also undertook a lot of work at local level to ensure that families were aware of the timeline and the process. This earlier date in October coincides with when schools begin enrolment processes and so affords parents the opportunity to enrol in existing classes. Many mainstream schools, particularly at post-primary level, commence admissions processes for the following school year on 1 October annually.
The council advises that the majority of children and young people coming through the parents notify process and seeking a special class or a special school place for the 2026-27 school year are already enrolled in school and are being supported by existing special education teachers and special needs assistants.
As with other applications for support, it is important that those who come forward after the closing date are assured that they are not forgotten or excluded from the system.
I stress that the council will continue to support all children made known to it after 1 October in their existing placement with appropriate supports. At the same time, it is critical that the council has as much local information as possible as early as possible to effectively plan new provision.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11