Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Eoghan Kenny (LAB), Cork North-Central

At the Committee of Public Accounts in February, the Secretary General of the Department of education told me that a memo would be sent to Cabinet in relation to how we are going to deal with the exponential growth in the level of demand for children who require school places. Last Thursday, the Secretary General told me that the memo is set to be sent to Cabinet. Has that memo on how we are going to deal with this exponential growth been sent to Cabinet?
The Minister cited a figure of 7,860 children who had been notified before the October deadline. The Taoiseach has already clarified that there has been exponential growth following the deadline in October. I know the Department of education has the figure on the number of children who require a school place because the NCSE gives the Department a figure every Friday. That has yet to be revealed.
I want to know how many children still require a school place for the coming academic year and whether a memo has been sent to the Government on how we are going to deal with the exponential growth. It is more than likely that extra funding will have to be made available. Is it the case that we will need at least 600 special classes for the coming academic year? Are we still approximately 170 classes short?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-23