School Admissions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I thank the Deputy for the genuineness of the question. Without filling it out, she has gone directly to the core of the issue. I will respond accordingly. We have had a huge amount of investment in special education, which I am glad to see, over the past number of years and last year we expanded that. This time last year, after being appointed, the deadline was 1 February. We were then correlating and getting the information in February and it was March or April before we were in any position to help families or give certainty to them. My guide in terms of providing in this role is something that happened a number of years ago. I was at the school gate where one child was finishing in a special class and they did not know where they were going to go on 1 September for post-primary education. They were asking me for guidance and help. To see the fear, anxiety and concern of the parent in that instance guided me before I took this position but also in many challenges over the past year. We need to bring certainty. We set it as 1 October and brought it back four months so the Department, the planning and building unit and the NCSE would have an understanding of the need in September 2026 and we could better plan and ensure there is a place for every child whether in a special class, in a special school or in mainstream. A lot of work has been done and a huge number of families and guardians notified the NCSE of the special education requirements for their children for September 2026. We are working through that.
A number of families have come forward to say that because of different challenges, they have gone beyond that deadline. We acknowledge that 1 October was a new deadline. We need to get that into the mindset of the entire educational system into the future. The Department and the NCSE had extensive discussions with Helen McEntee prior to November and have had discussions again this week with Hildegarde Naughton. We are acutely aware of the challenge.
The Deputy asked if we could work on a case-by-case basis. That is what we are doing. The deadline we set was, for the first time, 1 October. An awful lot of good information has come in and we are able to plan better. It allowed us to announce last week the first tranche of special classes, which happened four months earlier than last year. We have a number of families that notified after the 1 October deadline and we are working on that challenge. We will work with and support families.
Deputies across the House have come to me on this. We will work on individual cases. Reopening the portal is not something we are looking at because that would further confuse things. We need to get the information earlier. We know there are specific issues in some families. Parents of children with additional needs face stresses, are trying to balance everything and may have missed it, or they may be waiting for an assessment or for the letters. We need to be mindful of the challenges they face and work to find a solution. I know the Deputy will share the individual cases directly with me and we will work on a case-by-case basis on it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21