I echo what the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte has said and I appreciate her support. I commend Senator Carrigy on his work and Deputy Buckley on sponsoring the motion. I thank both of them for their contributions and I thank Deputies Canney, Connolly, Michael Moynihan, Tully, Joan Collins, Ó Murchú, Funchion, Ó Cathasaigh and Conway-Walsh. I have taken a note of everything they have said, as has an official from the Department, along with taking note of the report. We will be looking at all of it in detail. I …

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and I thank Senator Dolan for her question. I am delighted to be here today on behalf of the Minister for Transport. I understand the Senator's question relates to the roll-out of the Connecting Ireland plan more generally, but also specifically regarding route 23 between Athlone and Ballinasloe. I know she mentioned a few other routes too. The Department of Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding of public transport. However, the Department is not involved in the…

I thank the Senator. I note she welcomed the Castlerea to Ballinasloe service, which will offer three services a day to students, the campus and all of that. I note she also mentioned the 878 Athlone to Roscommon service and the 440 from Athlone as well. I will ask the Minister for Transport to come back to her directly on those. There are, I understand, four routes planned for the first phase of Connecting Ireland for Galway. Some have been implemented already in the Connemara region, including route 431 from Carr…

I thank the Deputy for raising this Topical Issue matter. In my capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for special education, NEPS is not directly under my remit but, notwithstanding that, I am very happy to talk about it this evening. Obviously, it is a separate service to special needs assistants, SNAs, and special education teachers, but NEPS is a very important service that is provided to all 4,000 primary and post-primary schools. The Deputy mentioned, for example, what would happen in the circumsta…

To be clear, the Deputy is correct that there is not an assigned psychologist available at present. The point that I was trying to make is that the school does continue to have access to support and development work, which is delivered by the local team for critical incident response, as outlined by the Deputy. There is advisory support as well from an allocated psychologist for pupil casework. There is also an advisory psychologist who can respond to any queries that the school may have, and support from SCPA, whi…

Like the rest of the country, my thoughts continue to be very much with the loved ones of Ashling Murphy, in particular as the Deputy states, we have just marked the anniversary of her murder. The Minister, Deputy Harris, and I both welcome that the Deputy has tabled this issue for discussion, because tackling all forms of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence is, and will continue to be, a key priority for this Government. I cannot sufficiently underscore the commitment across the Government to tackling these…

I thank the Deputy for her advocacy in this regard. I can hear the passion when she talks about this matter. Domestic violence has increased and has in fact doubled in the past 15 years. In my previous life as a family lawyer, l dealt with many women, and some men, who were victims of domestic violence. Ms Sarah Grace has spoken very eloquently on the criminal justice system. I could use the term "in part", but to a large extent many victims did not come forward because of their fear of the criminal justice system …

We have a number of school planning areas throughout the country and, as the Deputy knows, we have 4,000 schools in totality. It is important that we provide an education to every single child. It is a constitutional right for all children, including children with additional needs. I can speak to the Deputy in regard to the sites in his constituency.

As the Deputy will be aware, one in four schools now have DEIS status. This number was significantly increased in the budget. There was also significant expansion of the hot school meals programme both to primary and post-primary schools, along with a number of other different initiatives to help parents who have schoolgoing children. On DEIS, an appeal mechanism is there and I understand the school the Deputy is referring to has already appealed. I can bring this matter to the attention of the Department if the De…

I am pleased to respond on behalf of the Government and to speak about our work in the area of teacher supply. The Minister, Deputy Foley, wanted to be here this morning to respond in person to the motion and listen to all the voices that will contribute to this important debate. Regrettably, she is present in her capacity as Minister for Education at the OECD ministerial conference taking place in Paris involving 38 members of the OECD and is thus unable to attend. She continues to work intensively with officials …

I thank the Deputy for raising this. We debated a lot of these points already on radio. I did not get the opportunity to mention the National Council for Special Education, NCSE. I did mention the extra €30 million in funding that we secured for it in the budget, but the reason it is pertinent to this question is that the council will now be in a position to hire new special educational needs organisers, SENOs. One of the things that strikes me when travelling around meeting school staff and principals is that they…

Regarding SENOs in Cork, I can make inquiries. There are 63 new special classes in Cork this year, out of the 600 special classes we opened in primary schools this year, along with the 300 classes in post-primary schools and five special schools opened over the past three years. In terms of numbers, it is critical that the NCSE is aware of children who require an appropriate placement, and this is where SENOs come in. I refer to one of the difficulties in the past, of which the Deputy may be aware. A child who has …

They are, of course, aware of the numbers. They change on a daily basis, as the Deputy can appreciate. That is why we have all of the forecasting measures, which I outlined to the Deputy. For the sake of the House, we are bringing forward a number of different strategic initiatives. The geographical information system, GIS, through the planning and building unit, is now sharing real-time capacity information with the NCSE. There is updated technical guidance for building reconfiguration. There is future-proofing at…

I thank the Deputy for his question. As he is aware, the AON process is provided for under the Disability Act 2005. Assessment officers under the remit of the HSE are charged with organising the AON. The Deputy will be aware of a court ruling in October 2021, which created an legal obligation on the education system to assist the HSE as part of the HSE’s AON process. That refers only to the educational component, as distinct from anything else. The Department engaged with unions, management bodies and other stakeho…

I understand there are still ongoing conversations on this matter and there is a commitment to extend the trial period. On principals or teachers being overburdened, as Minister of State with responsibility for special education, I acknowledge that schools are very complex organisations, as I have seen in the school visits I have undertaken. It is important that we acknowledge we are very lucky to have effective leaders in our schools, a point noted in the chief inspector's report recently. It is also important to …

It is important to be clear on the purpose of the AON process as it applies to schools. The assessment of educational needs requires schools to take information about a student that already exists, usually in the student support file in the school, and make it available to the HSE via the NCSE. The assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning and teachers assess their students constantly using a range of formal and informal assessment practices. This is the information that informs the assessment of educ…

This is based on the NCSE's advice in its guidance document from 2021 regarding health professionals reports. In the first place, the report must indicate whether a child has a specific diagnosis, and then there must be some understanding of the complexity of the child's needs, what placement would be appropriate and the rationale for it. That is the NCSE's advice in that regard. An updated assessment is required when a child transitions from primary school to post-primary school. This is something post-primary sch…

Given the passage of time since a pupil may have been assessed, it is common practice that pupils are reassessed ahead of transitioning to post-primary school. The assessment may assist both the pupil and the post-primary school in determining the most appropriate supports that are required for the pupil and how the school can best support the individual to integrate into mainstream classes, where possible. A review is ongoing, and the work is at an initial stage. There is a meeting today with the inspectorate, NEP…

I will respond to Deputy Durkan first and then speak to the matter raised by Deputy Collins. As I mentioned in response to a previous question, 742 special classes in post-primary schools were opened this year but there are 1,803 special classes in primary schools, so there is already a gap in that regard. As I outlined, that is why I wrote the letter to all post-primary schools, stating that over the next five years each post-primary school will have to open four special classes. We need to close that gap. I menti…

It is unclear to me why a SENO would say that there was capacity and that the child does not have a place. That does not make any sense to me and that is something that I can follow up with the Deputy afterwards and we can take it from there.