Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-16
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Frankie Feighan (FG), Sligo-Leitrim

I thank the Deputy for the question. The programme for Government includes a number of commitments relevant to students attending special schools. These include the development and strengthening of bridges from special schools into employment. This is a priority commitment for the Government, as seen in the National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. An interdepartmental steering group co-chaired by the Department of Education and Youth, the Department of Children, Disability and Equality and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has been established to oversee this work. A priority action for the group is the development of a national policy on transitions. This work is ongoing and a report is expected by the end of this year. Over the past four years, the Department of Education and Youth, in partnership with the National Council of Special Education, NCSE, and Walkinstown Association for People with an Intellectual Disability, or WALK, has been testing two different approaches to a transitions support model. A teacher-led programme has been operating in 41 special schools as part of the Department's response to the comprehensive employment strategy for disabled people.
The WALK peer ability transitions programme, to which the Deputy refers in the question, is currently supporting ten schools, including seven special schools and three post-primary schools in Dublin, Louth, Cork, Cavan and Westmeath. This programme is delivered by careers and employment facilitators who work directly with students in their final two years of school but also support the students for a further three years post-school. Both pilot programmes finished in June. Both programmes have been externally evaluated and were the subject of very positive feedback from all the participant schools and stakeholders more broadly. Both evaluations recommended the expansion of a transitions type model of support to students.
In relation to the WALK peer model specifically, funding of €2 million has been provided through the Dormant Accounts Fund, DAF, over the past four years to support the programme in the ten schools. The programme is fully funded until December 2026. To provide a continuum of support until June 2027 for students supported by WALK who left school in 2026, the Department has submitted an application through the DAF 2027 for additional funding and a decision is expected shortly. In addition, a number of Departments have received a submission from WALK to extend and expand the programme over the next four years. While the outcomes of the programme are positive, the scalability of the model to all special schools over the next number of years is limited relatively and the scalability of the teacher-led CES transitions model. Based on the outcomes of both pilot programmes and subject to the total funding available, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, announced a new transitions support service for all special schools in June this year. The purpose of the new service is to support young people with disabilities as they prepare to move from school into further education, training, employment and other post-school opportunities and pathways. In addition, the focus of schools’ work can be on supporting transitions into the school. The service is being rolled out to all special schools from this month and will be managed by the NCSE. The service provides each special school with 34 transition support teaching days per year. This flexible allocation will allow schools to deliver transition support at the times it is needed most throughout the school year.
Again, I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue.

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Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-16