Special Educational Needs

I welcome the Minister of State to the House today and for giving me an opportunity to discuss with him the urgent need for additional special school places in my area of Kildare South. Over the past number of years, particularly since I have been in both Houses, I have been raising the urgent issue of special school places in Kildare South. We were previously given a commitment that we would have a special school in Kildare South. Unfortunately, as I have said many times in this House and the Upper House, that school turned out to be located in Craddockstown in Naas, which is in north Kildare. However, it is a very good school. It is operating well but it is completely full, and it causes problems for all of those people who are seeking a special school place for their child. Another school that we have in our area, and I am looking forward to the Minister of State providing an update on it, is St. Anne's Special School in the Curragh, which is waiting ten years for a new school build. I raised this with the Taoiseach a number of months ago and we are waiting for word on when that great school on the Curragh will see the new build that has been promised for so long and is so needed with so many children now working from prefabs and not getting to use the playgrounds, etc., the school could offer. However, I want to concentrate today on the new school located in Monasterevin in County Kildare. I want to again put on the record my thanks to the Government and everybody who was involved in getting this school in Ros Glas in Monasterevin because it was badly needed. As I said, I have been saying this for such a long time in this House but, unfortunately, the 18 places available in Ros Glas school have now been totally oversubscribed. We have three different classes there: ages four to eight, nine to 13 and 14 to 18. In particular, it seems from talking to the Kildare Wicklow Education Training Board, KWETB, it is the nine to 13 class that is oversubscribed the most. It is because pupils are coming from primary school settings into a secondary school setting. There was so much hope that the particular new school in Ros Glas was going to be location for their children but over the past four to five days parents have been receiving letters informing them that their child did not get a place. I want to read the Minister of State one of those letters. I know that I have been in contact with him in relation to a number of children but this is from a parent, Edel Murray, who is fighting for a place for her son, Jack. Edel recently shared an open letter to the Minister of State, the Government and to all the public representatives in Kildare South. Jack is an incredible boy with autism and a moderate intellectual disability. He is so much more than a diagnosis. He is our son, and he deserves the opportunity to learn, grow, build friendships, develop independence, and reach his full potential. But right now, Jack is at home, not because he does not need or deserve school, but because we have been unable to secure him a suitable special school placement. [...] Despite our efforts, Jack has been refused a place at every school. We live just 1.3 km from St. Anne's, [the school that I mentioned to the Minister of State before] yet there are no spaces available. This morning, we received a refusal from Ros Glas, our last remaining hope. We cannot put into words the heartbreak and helplessness we feel. How do you explain to your child that there is no school place for him when all he needs is the opportunity to learn and grow? As the Minister of State is probably aware, I have spoken to a number of parents, including the parents of Caden and Rhys. I could name so many more. The hope that was there that Ros Glas was going to give them that school place how gone. They will of course appeal to that school for a place but speaking to the KWETB, the hope is very much limited because the places are not there. I ask the Minister of State to maybe give some good news to those parents who have multiple needs and unfortunately do not have a school place for their loved one.

I thank Deputy Wall for the question. The Government is very committed to the provision of specialised education. In the budget of 2026, this time last year, we committed to over 400 new special classes and over 400 new special school places. In April, we agreed additional funding to have more funding in place for more special classes and special school places as well. The year 2026 represents the largest ever expansion of specialist educational provision in the history of the State. Through the combined efforts of the Department and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, 587 new special classes have been sanctioned for the 2026-2027 school year, including 70 inclusive special classes. This represents an increase of over 40% in the number of special classes being provided in 2026 compared to 2025. Between 1 September 2025 and 1 September 2026, nine new special schools opened and there are almost 1,000 extra special classes. In total, there will be over 4,300 special classes operating in mainstream schools next year, an increase of 130% since 2020. In Kildare, 180 special classes are now in operation providing capacity for 1,080 students. This includes 33 new special classes for the 2026-2027 school year. In April of this year, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and I announced the establishment of four new special schools for this year, including Monasterevin, to which the Deputy alluded. This brings to 20 the number of new special schools established in recent years. Dedicated working groups in the Department, the NCSE and the relevant patron bodies continue to meet and to support the establishment of the new special schools. On that point, I thank the ETBs and the patron bodies that have opened those special schools and continue to work very closely with us on the new special schools. We are desperately committed. When a new special school opens, there is a huge new skillset needed and we are desperately committed to ensuring that back-up service is there through the ETBs, our Department and the patron bodies. Offers of places have been recently made while new principals, teachers and SNAs have been recruited. It is intended that these new schools will open in term 1 of this school year. The NCSE continues to advise parents at a local level on developments, and to support children with contingency arrangements. The Deputy raised the issue in terms of a specific child and, while I am reluctant to speak about a specific child on the floor of the Dáil, I do take it very seriously. I know that offers were in place and that the Department and the NCSE are working very closely with a small number of children. I have reached out to some of those parents over the past day or two to get a sense of where they are at and to understand their need. On the 18 places in the three classes in Monasterevin, we are building up the skillset for special school places to open and to build up over the next number of years. That is very much in-built in our policy. It offers us the opportunity to get the skillset but I take the point the Deputy raised in relation to one or more of his constituents and their children. I understand the challenges there and the very serious stress it is causing them. We are working day in, day out to make sure we are meeting that need. The Department and the NCSE will continue to do that in the time ahead.

I thank the Minister of State. I have no doubt of his commitment to helping the families because when I contact him, he always comes back to me. That is a sign of his commitment to the families that I and everybody in this House represent. The problem I have is that I have been told by the KWETB that, particularly in the 12 to 13 age bracket, these families could be waiting a very long time to get a special school place because the demand is so high. As I have said, this is a demand that I have highlighted in the Upper House and in this House for the past six years. That is why we were so enraged when the first school was put in Craddockstown. It is a wonderful school but now that we have a school in south Kildare, I ask the Minister of State to look at particular age bracket because that seems to be the biggest issue in relation to the school. I do not know how to advise the parents who have come to me, and I could name an awful lot more. When the Minister of State talks about the contingency arrangements the NCSE is talking about, it is home schooling, and he knows that. That is what it has said to the parents when they contacted it. It has said it will provide home schooling for them. That means the children who have come so far over the past number of years in some primary settings have no hope because they are going back into a home school setting and those friendships and relationships they have developed, that social inclusion, is gone. That is hugely distressing for their families. Maybe we could look at the contingency arrangements again. Maybe we could go back to parents and say that we are going to do more. Again, I do not doubt the Minister of State's bona fides on this because he has been very helpful to me with every case I have raised. However, I cannot go back to the parents of those pupils in south Kildare and tell them there is no hope, that there are no classrooms coming up for a number of years. That particular age bracket is full and there is no hope of anything coming but I ask again, can we just look at that age bracket, while we are looking in general?

I thank the Deputy for his kind comments. We do not turn water into wine every time but we do certainly try to help and assist in any way we can. I accept the Deputy's comments on this. We started out this time last year, just after 1 October, with a huge number of students, at primary and post-primary and in special schools, looking for places. We have, through the massive work that continued throughout the year in the Department of education and the NCSE, brought that down to a very small cohort of children, although any one person is one too many. We are working on this. We have sight of it. We meet weekly. We chair a meeting in the Department with the NCSE on a weekly basis to make sure that we have sight of what is happening and the movement over the last number of weeks has been quite considerable. I take the point that the Deputy makes in terms of the middle group. If one looks at the provision of specialised education, at primary school we have advanced and invested a huge amount into special classes. I would like to thank all of the school communities, patron bodies and everybody involved in that but we have a lot of work to do to make sure we have corresponding provision at post-primary. Going back 20 or 25 years ago, international policy was not about building special schools. It was seen as negative and the commentary was that it should not been done but we have really ramped up the provision of specialised school places and will continue to do so, year in and year out, over the next number of years because we want to ensure that children who have complex needs and educational requirements that are best suited to special schools have places. I do not want to go into the specifics that the Deputy has raised but I am certainly aware of them. I will be working to try to find solutions for every family over the next number of weeks.