Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-16
============================================================

Neale Richmond (FG), Dublin Rathdown

It is important to remember that the vast majority of students with special educational needs are supported to attend school in mainstream classes with their peers. This goes to the crucial point raised eloquently by the Deputy about the hardships that a long commute would put on certain families, especially in a constituency such as his own or that of the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Ó Murchú, or Deputy Daly, with such vast spaces. The notion of having to travel up to 45 km may be not something I or Deputy Devine would know in our constituencies but it is certainly something that would have a colossal impact and requires a level of attention. Central to providing that care and education, as I stated, are not only the 15,000 special education teachers but also, crucially, the 12,500 special need assistants. That is, obviously, always the optimum and the ideal, but there are always situations where children will need to go to specialist classes, even if it is not for the full duration of the two years.
I am extremely grateful to the Deputy for raising this. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, stands ready to engage with him further on the point.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-16