Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I can assure Deputy O'Rourke that we are tracking. We are opening the special schools and we have engaged with the special classes. Yes, of course we are tracking the admissions policies because the admissions policy is the enabler from the sanction of the special class, the physical building, the teacher and the two SNAs, and also to ensure there are students in it. It is being tracked at all times.
We are constantly asked about numbers. The Minister and I are acutely aware of the need to make sure children have school places and we are working extremely hard on it. We are across this, day in, day out, right across the Department and the NCSE. I assure Deputy O'Rourke that the NCSE is meticulously working with families and with school communities. When sanctioning takes place, it is then on to the admissions policy to enable that class to be populated by students and to ensure they are in for the school year. The vast majority of those that have been sanctioned have the admissions policy up and running and most of them have it completed at this stage.

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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