Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-23
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Neale Richmond (FG), Dublin Rathdown

I appreciate the Deputy's supplementary question and, where relevant, will bring it forward to the relevant line Minister. He raised a few key issues that are absolutely understandable, but go to the nub of the complexity of providing special education that is sometimes blanket and misses certain aspects of a child's development in education or what their need or want is. It is hard to put that into a straight column.
The Department will continue to engage intensively with the NCSE on forward planning for new special provision to ensure every child has a place in an educational setting, which, where possible, best fits their special needs on the back of the 15,000 special education teachers and 12,500 SNAs already in the system. For children with more complex needs, special class or special school places are still important. That is in keeping with the policy. Crucially, there is a need for a degree of flexibility to allow children to adapt to settings to allow them flourish to their best, particularly at the key ages of between eight and 12 when diagnoses are made. It is about putting in a learning support plan that is appropriate to the child's needs and the setting.
There is no perfect answer to any of the issues, which on an individual basis I have no doubt are coming into the Deputy's constituency office, as they probably come into all our constituency offices. However, the issues the Deputy raised provide me with great material, which I will put directly to the Minister and I will ask her to respond to the Deputy with additional information in due course.

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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