Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Paul Lawless (AON), Mayo

I thank the Minister of State. I asked this question because of the importance of schools and families being able to plan. However, in reality there are families who still do not know what school they can send their child to. They are right across Mayo. A special school in Mayo that does absolutely wonderful work is St. Anthony's School in Castlebar. The management team of Fiona Byrne, Anna Sweeney, Helena Brady as well as all the staff do amazing work but within the first hour of admissions opening for this calendar year the school was oversubscribed. Applicants exceeded the capacity of the school. That is leaving families and also the school in an incredibly difficult scenario. The Minister of State says this is going to happen in February and March but families are struggling and stressed today. St. Anthony's and many other schools across Mayo are trying to accommodate children but they do not know what resources they will have. This is a priority. There must be an expected timeframe for delivery.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12