The Deputy mentioned a couple of things. The closing date for payment or for medical card issues is 6 June, which is next Friday. Bus Éireann and the Department officials have assured me they will be working extremely hard for the three weeks after that to get the information together, to correlate it and to understand where the needs are and where the challenges are going to be met. A lot of work is going on and I p…
TDs / Michael Moynihan
Michael Moynihan
Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth
Portrait: © Houses of the Oireachtas (Oireachtas (Open Data) PSI Licence) · source file
5
questions asked
Oral and written, to government departments
133,123
words spoken in the chamber
133,123 as a minister, 0 as a TD
426
votes recorded
Each Yes, No or Abstained in a recorded vote
4
topics asked about
Across 3 departments
From the Dáil chamber only: committee meetings are not in this archive.
What they ask about
The subject headings the Oireachtas filed their questions under.
Who they ask
The departments their questions were addressed to.
Month by month
Low months are usually recesses, when the Dáil does not sit. The archive runs to 22 October 2026.
Questions asked 5 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Contributions to debates 382 in all
Dec 2024Oct 2026
Show as a table
| Month | Questions | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| January 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| February 2025 | 0 | 27 |
| March 2025 | 0 | 3 |
| April 2025 | 1 | 25 |
| May 2025 | 1 | 5 |
| June 2025 | 0 | 15 |
| July 2025 | 0 | 19 |
| August 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2025 | 2 | 4 |
| October 2025 | 0 | 18 |
| November 2025 | 0 | 10 |
| December 2025 | 0 | 42 |
| January 2026 | 1 | 12 |
| February 2026 | 0 | 34 |
| March 2026 | 0 | 8 |
| April 2026 | 0 | 26 |
| May 2026 | 0 | 23 |
| June 2026 | 0 | 30 |
| July 2026 | 0 | 18 |
| August 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| September 2026 | 0 | 6 |
| October 2026 | 0 | 57 |
Debates they spoke in most
Plus 349 contributions in the regular slots, such as Leaders' Questions and Priority Questions. Speech from the chair is not counted.
Asked about similar topics
Not enough questions on record to compare.
Party, constituency and offices
- constituency Cork North-West 29 November 2024 to now
- party Fianna Fáil 29 November 2024 to now
- office Minister of State at the Department of Education 29 January 2025 to 1 May 2025
- office Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth 2 May 2025 to now
I thank colleagues right across the House for their contributions, not just during the discussion this afternoon on making Ireland's education system a world-class system and making sure every child can reach his or her full potential. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue and I thank Deputies for their contributions on it. I also thank thank the Minister, Deputy McEntee, for the huge amount of work and co…
I welcome the opportunity to speak about Kilcredan National School. The school transport scheme is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education. In the current school year, more than 172,500 children are transported daily in almost 8,000 vehicles across 10,300 routes to primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. These daily trips cover over 100 million kilometr…
I look forward to more visits to east Cork over the next number of years. When a rural school closes, there is a void and almost a grieving process within the community in which the school is located. One guarantee that was given way back when the amalgamations took place was that there would be an adequate bus service to get students from that location to the central school. It was always indicated that at primary l…
I welcome the opportunity to contribute on the debate. I thank the Labour Party for this motion. I also thank my colleagues across the House for their meaningful contributions. I welcome parents and guardians to the Gallery. I know the challenge, anguish and difficulties they are facing to try to ensure that there are places for their children in September.
Long before I took on this role, I worked extensively with …
I thank the Deputy for his Topical Issue. I stress that enabling students with special educational needs to receive an appropriate education is an absolute priority for me and the entire Government. It is the Government's priority to ensure that all children have an appropriate school placement and that all necessary supports are provided to our schools to allow children with special educational needs to flourish and…
I thank the Deputy again for raising the question and giving me the opportunity to reassure the House that the Department of Education and the NCSE are committed to ensuring that all children can access an education suitable to their needs. The Department of Education continues to engage intensively with the National Council for Special Education in relation to forward planning for new special provision for the 2025-…
I thank the Deputy for raising this hugely important Topical Issue and convey the apologies of my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Deputy Jim O’Callaghan, who regrets he cannot be here due to another commitment.
On behalf of the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter here today and for giving me the opportunity to provide clarity on the manner in which the personal inj…
I again thank the Deputy for raising the matter and providing me with an opportunity to go through the issues. I listened very closely to the points the Deputy made and I am aware of the views expressed by some stakeholders that the proposed increase will have the effect of increasing premiums. This is something we have to consider in the future in terms of how the Act operates. Members of the House will have an oppo…
I thank the Deputy for the question. This Government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential, and the programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. Up to an additional 2,700 specialist places, made up of 400 new special classes for, on average, six children each, and 300 special school places will be provided for th…
I thank the Deputy for the supplementary questions. I met a number of parents and have met with them over many years in respect of special educational needs. I know the stress they are under. I cannot overstate how hard the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I have worked over recent weeks to ensure we would have a place for every child in September. We are working extremely hard with the NCSE and the Department of Educat…
There is absolutely no policy change in relation to SNAs. We have more SNAs working in the education system and more budgeted for the 2025-26 school year. I take this opportunity of acknowledging the enormous work the SNAs do in the entire school communities. The work they do in special education, the dedication they put into it and the connection they have with the children and families is second to none. We should …
No change.
I thank the Deputy for raising this question. I was in Kerry and visited a number of the special schools there in recent weeks. I visited Nano Nagle Special School in Listowel, St. Francis Special School in Beaufort and St. Ita's and St. Joseph's Primary and Post-Primary Special School in Tralee. These were very insightful visits and showed the tremendous work being done by principals, teachers, SNAs, boards of manag…
I thank the Deputies for the questions. I turn first to the issue in north-east Kerry. I have no difficulty in taking the details from the Deputy and following through on the specific issues.
On Deputy Gould's point, the NCSE has been looking at the number of pupils who have come forward. The closing date was in February. We are doing everything humanly possible to make sure there are classes available. I am aware o…
I will respond directly to Deputy Conway-Walsh with the details.
On the issue in north-east Kerry, there have been extra SENOs put into the field since last September. My experience to date is that they have been working extremely well with families and school communities to ensure that the need is being addressed as locally as possible. There was a circular earlier in the year relating to medium-to-large schools. T…
I thank the Deputy. The Government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to reach their full potential. In the programme for Government, we have a number of commitments in that regard. Dedicated working groups have been established by the Department of Education to work through the details relating to the establishment of the five new special schools for the 2025-26 school year, inc…
First, I wish to reassure the Deputy that the Department and the design team within it, the NCSE and the local ETB will continue to review the accommodation options available to allow the special school to grow and expand. While it is initially for 18 students in the coming year, we want to ensure we have available space to meet the growing need that we anticipate within the Monaghan community over the next number of…
I met a number of the parents who were here last week. I know only full well the battle that all the families and parents are going through, not just from being a public representative but also from personal experience as well. I am fully aware of the challenges parents face daily with regard to special needs, particularly the battles around the country for special schools. I refer to a number of policies that were b…
I thank the Deputy for the question. I also thank him for the work he does in this sector and the support he has given me since I took up this role. I greatly appreciate it. The majority of children with special educational needs are supported by mainstream classroom teachers, special education teachers and SNAs to attend mainstream classes with their peers. Where children have more complex needs, a special class or …
This will offer over 70 additional special school places in addition to the new capacity created in the new special school in north Cork.
In fairness, if the Deputy had listened to what I said, he would know that is not what I said.
We are deadly serious about making sure there are special places and special schools open in Cork-----
I thank the Deputies for the question. It gives me an opportunity to outline the issue from the side of the Department. It is under the remit of the Minister, Deputy McEntee in this regard.
I am conscious that the leaving certificate can be a very stressful time for students and their families. This includes the stress of the examinations themselves and the decisions for students in determining their pathways into w…
I thank the Deputies and I understand their concerns. There are several issues here. Regarding therapies, there are additional places being provided in higher education for therapies and that is a commitment in the programme for Government. It is also an acknowledgement of the huge shortage out there within the State and I stated this in my previous reply.
In any discussions we have regarding the leaving certificate…