Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Jennifer Whitmore (SD), Wicklow

I thank the Minister of State. I have seen some fantastic modular buildings but what they are not is the same as the permanent traditional building. The children who will be in those classrooms will know that they are in a different type of build. Those modular buildings will not look like the traditional build and the existing school and they will not feel like it. Those children will feel different. That should not be acceptable to the Minister of State with responsibility for special education. When the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, was Taoiseach and announced this school, he said there would be special education classes in the school. Why were they not included in the design? They should have been. The Government did not do it then but it now has an opportunity to ensure the design includes additional classrooms for those children.
It is not acceptable to make them feel separate to the main class and the main school building. It just is not okay. It may be more cost effective and I have asked the Minister of State's Department for the information as to how much it would cost to modify the current build versus how much these modular buildings will cost. These modular buildings are expensive as well, so I would appreciate if the Minister of State could send me those figures. If the Department is saying it is more cost effective, it would be interesting to know by how much. It is not just about cost, though. It is about including these children so they feel the exact same as their classmates who are in the brand new building.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24