Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-28
============================================================

Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I thank Deputy Roche. He did indeed speak with me on this issue yesterday. I am pleased that the Government has decided that the portal will reopen in the coming days to provide a better window for schools to apply. This Government's record on special education and children with additional needs is one of investment and growth. There were 8,767 children benefiting from the summer programme in 2016. Over 70,000 benefited last year. I would be surprised if that number was not higher again this year. When it comes to things like special classes, the roll-out of therapies in special schools and the size of the budget in special education, we have a lot of work to do but it is a priority area, as it should be.

---

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