Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-27
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I thank the Deputy very much for raising the question and also for the change in time, which I appreciate. We in the Department, and the entire Government, have invested heavily in ensuring that all recognised mainstream schools have been allocated additional special education teaching resources to support children with special educational needs, including students with literacy difficulties.
Guidelines for schools on the organisation, deployment and use of their special education teachers have been published on the Department's website. For the 2026-27 school year there will be, I think, 15,200 special education teachers allocated to primary and post-primary schools to enable them to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE has the responsibility for planning and co-ordinating school supports for children with special educational needs. The Department does not have a role in individual determinations. Funding is also made available to schools for the purchase of specialised equipment such as computers or software to assist children with special educational needs. This includes children with a specific learning disability, where relevant professionals recommend the equipment as being essential for the provision of education. Schools then apply to the NCSE.
A continuum of education provision is in place, covering a full range of needs spanning placement in mainstream classes, with support through more specialised placements either in the special class or special school setting.
The Deputy raised the issue of dyslexia in particular. If she looks at the funding that we are giving to special education in particular, she will see that it has grown hugely in recent years and, as I said, we now have over 15,000 teachers. The policy, including international policy, is for children with educational needs to be in mainstream, insofar as is possible, and to support them in mainstream. We are providing a huge amount of funding through the various resources in the Department and the NCSE to ensure that children with dyslexia, in particular, can be accommodated in mainstream education.
Much of the discussion that we have had in the House, with the NCSE, with the Department on a continuous basis and with the Oireachtas committee is to ensure that we are targeting children with dyslexia or other literacy difficulties in a meaningful way. We have put in the resources. A huge volume of work is being done by the special education teachers across the country. They are also doing a huge amount of work outside school time to make sure they are equipped to meet the needs of the children and give them the best possible education.
We are constantly monitoring this. While the Government and the Department are putting in the resources, the question is whether we are having the desired outcomes. We have evidence to show the support that is being given in mainstream classes, and the outcomes are very positive. We are continuing to monitor that. As we have seen over the decades since Independence, education is constantly evolving, and it is continuing to evolve at the moment. There is a greater understanding of the needs, but also a greater understanding of the need to ensure that the resources we are putting in are targeted in a meaningful way. We need to ensure that the outcomes for children and young people are meaningful, and that they are equipped to lead the best life.
To answer the specific question, we are constantly monitoring the resources that we are putting in to ensure we are targeting them in the proper way. I will come back to the Deputy on the other points in my concluding remarks.

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Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-27