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

I would like to pay tribute to Miceál, who is the principal of that school, and the teams in all the special schools across the country - the teachers, SNAs and all the additional people who work there. I was at a special school in the south of Ireland in September. As I was walking along the corridor, one of the team there was using a measuring tape because they were putting together a chair out of a box for a student. There was no notice taken of it when I stopped to discuss it with them. It was part of their work. The care, love and attention that teams in special schools and special classes, and indeed throughout the education system, give to children with additional needs across the length and breadth of the country is commendable. We have to be ahead of the need.
The Deputy mentioned the need, the extensions and the fact those extensions are full. We have sight of what is needed for September 2026 and are working extremely hard. There were meetings right up to Christmas and again last week, when we announced the first tranche of special classes. We will be announcing more than 600 classes across the entire system to match the need for September 2026.
Going back to the Deputy's original point, people will acknowledge that we brought forward the portal for 1 October. We need to do better on that. This was the first year of it. We have to work on it and ensure that a proper system is in place and that we see the figures long before time. The other thing is that we need Departments to share information like the domiciliary care details from the Department of Social Protection or the AIMS programme, so we understand the need early on as a State. These are some of the barriers we are trying to break down.
The whole of government is involved in that. The Cabinet subcommittee is very clear on the need for a step change in relation to special education. I am fortunate to be in this role and working with Hildegarde Naughton on it. We are committed to doing this. There are and will be challenges but we are committed to breaking down those challenges. We will work to find solutions for those who notified after 1 October. I am open to the Deputy and to Deputies across the House. We will try to work on any cases raised. We do not have magic wands. They have not been given to us yet but we will work to make the system better. I thank the Deputy for her interest.

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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