Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I thank the Deputy for his kind comments and also for his engagement on education. The opening of St. Michael's House Special National School was a wonderful day. I congratulate that community for the day and also for the work they do and the atmosphere that was within that school. We do not acknowledge enough the commitment to the work that school leadership and school teams do within special schools and right across schools.
I can confirm to the Deputy that the school to which he refers has been approved for accommodation to facilitate special class provision. Two new special classes were sanctioned at this school by the National Council for Special Education for the 2025-26 term. While accommodation for special classes can be provided within existing unused accommodation in many instances, modular accommodation can be installed under existing planning exemptions. In this case, a planning application was required. The planning application is to facilitate the provision of both special education and mainstream classrooms under the Department’s SEN reconfiguration and modular accommodation programme. There is provision for one special class within the planned modular accommodation. Additionally, the provision of modular classrooms will facilitate the repurposing of existing accommodation to facilitate the second special class. The school has been approved for grant funding to support these requirements for repurposing work. The local authority has made a request for further information in respect of the planning application for the required modular accommodation and a response to this is currently being finalised. Project management supports have been appointed to support the school in the delivery of this important project. Departmental officials and the project mangers will continue to work closely with the school authority to ensure that special class provision is made as soon as possible.
Where new special class accommodation is not in place at the start of a school year, the NCSE works closely with the schools and families to support the development of contingency arrangements for students enrolled in the new special classes. Teaching and special needs assistants have been allocated to schools that are opening new special classes this year and it is expected that these staff would work closely with the students enrolling in new special classes under any contingency arrangements that may be in place.

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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