Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-28
============================================================

Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

The Department of education and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, continue to work closely with school patron bodies, school management bodies and schools to confirm new special classes for the next school year 2026-27. The NCSE began sanctioning new special classes in January of this year, which is several months earlier than was the case in 2025. The NCSE advise that 7,860 verified notifications were received by 1 October. The vast majority of the notifications are for the 2026-27 school year, but some are for beyond that. In addition, we recently announced inclusive special classes as part of a new approach to supporting students with additional needs. This is one of the many ways the Department is actively engaging to meet the increased demand. As of 28 May 2026, 546 new special classes have been sanctioned, including 47 inclusive special classes, which is 32 at post-primary level and 15 at primary level.
I expect schools opening new special classes to move forward now with the admissions processes for these new classes. In addition to providing additional special class places, four new special schools are being established. These schools will be established in Balbriggan, CityWest, Bray and Monasterevin.
Data continues to be reviewed and analysed by the NCSE, which continues to engage with families. It is the experience of the NCSE that some families who contacted them may decide not to apply for a special education place. This may be where a place is not in a particular school of choice or where the student is already being supported appropriately in their existing placement. The Department and the NCSE will continue to closely monitor the need for further special class and special school places nationwide as part of forward planning for the 2027-28 school year. The NCSE continues to engage closely with schools and families to track the placement of children and young people and determine the current remaining level of need for specialist places at local level.

---

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/2026-05-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-28