Hildegarde Naughton: €3bn boost and new special education plans

Thank you, Comhairle. I welcome this evening's debate. It's important that we continue to shine a light on the area of special education to ensure that our children and young people with additional needs are supported in school to help them achieve their full potential. I appreciate and accept that some families and young people believe the system isn't doing enough for them, but supporting young people with special educational needs is a priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth and for my colleagues across government, and our track record is testament to that. In 2026, more than €3 billion will be spent on special education. This is the highest-ever annual provision and represents a 58% increase over the funding provided in 2020. In terms of how that funding is being used since 2020, we have almost doubled the number of special classes in our primary schools, going from 1,319 to 2,629. We now have more than twice the number of special classes in our post-primary schools, going from 517 to 1,112. Sixteen new special schools have been opened and four more will open for the next school year, 26-27. Special school enrolments have increased by 20% since 2020, and more than 40% of special schools have benefited from new or upgraded buildings. We continue to invest in our special education teachers, SETs, and our special needs assistants, SNAs, and there will be close to 22,500 special education teachers and approximately 25,000 SNAs in our schools by the end of the year. We're progressing the establishment of a new education therapy service, which will be introduced in 45 special schools to begin with. The first of these new therapists will be in post in the National Council for Special Education next month. Earlier this year, the government also confirmed that there will be no reduction for any school in their allocation of SNAs for the coming school year. Separately, work is progressing to finalise a workforce development plan for SNAs, an SNA redeployment scheme, and a new circular letter outlining the role of the SNA. I recently hosted a day-long engagement with Minister Moynihan, with SNAs and stakeholders on these issues, and I want to see progress made on these matters as quickly as possible. I know that an alternative circular on the role of the SNA is in circulation, and I appreciate the bona fides of those who have drafted it. However, it is important to note that any changes that I or my department will bring forward in this regard are being made as a result of close consultation and co-design with the trade union FORSA, the recognised representative body for SNAs, in addition to SNAs and relevant stakeholder groups. This consultation will be reflected in the three key documents relating to SNAs that I plan to publish shortly. Documents which have been co-designed with SNAs working in schools across every community in this state. There are many more developments and initiatives underway to support our children and young people with special educational needs, and my colleague Minister Michael Moynihan will speak to some of these in his contribution later. In the meantime, I think it's worth highlighting that demand for education services has grown significantly in recent years, with 38,000 additional students added to the system in the last five years alone. Today, one in four children, or around 240,000 children, require extra supports. This has led to a very large expansion in special education services. Around 30,000 require specialist provision in special classes or special schools. There has also been a major increase in the number of children with additional needs, both in Ireland and internationally. To ensure that these children receive the support that they need and to meet increased demand, government has this morning agreed to additional funding for the provision of special education services for children across the country. This money will fund special education teachers, additional SNAs, increased capitation, access to school transport for children in special education settings, and start-up grants for schools opening new special classes and inclusive special classes. For the balance of time remaining, I want to touch on two issues. The first one is, of course, to the forefront of the minds of many parents at present. That is, the provision of school places for September. And the second is plans in terms of developing a more inclusive education system. My department and the NCSE have engaged intensely on an ongoing basis over recent months with schools and stakeholders to forward plan for the provision of more special class and special school places for this coming school year. As you will be aware, Budget 2026 provided funding for up to 433 new special classes and up to 400 new special school places. As of last week, the NCSE had already sanctioned 432 new special classes, a number of months ahead of last year. Utilising the additional funding secured at Cabinet, my department and the NCSE will now work to ensure that further new special classes can be confirmed as soon as possible. These new special classes will be mainly made up of regular special classes with some new inclusive special classes. These new inclusive special classes, five of which were announced last week, will receive the same level of resources and funding as regular classes and can support more children and young children to attend their local school with their peers. These new classes should also facilitate schools to support students access mainstream classes for large parts of the day, something that is already happening across many of our schools already, particularly at post-primary level. The inclusive special classes are supported by management bodies from the post-primary sector. My department and the NCSE met with special education advocacy groups and parent representative bodies to discuss these new inclusive special classes last week, and a further engagement is planned for tomorrow. I would ask schools that are opening new special classes to progress now to run admissions processes and offer places to students. My department's policy has long been to ensure that children's needs are met in the most inclusive school environment as possible, and for the vast majority of children and young people this means that they're supported to engage with education in mainstream classes every day. However, some children and young people with complex needs require much greater levels of support, and my department and the NCSE has worked very hard to ensure that there are sufficient places in special classes and special schools to ensure that those students' needs are met. It is acknowledged that there is a significant body of work to do in relation to ensuring that greater opportunities are provided for inclusion for those students in particular. My department is conscious, for example, of the obligations on us as a country arising from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. This aligns with the previous policy advice published by the NCSE, which challenges us to ensure the progressive realisation of a more inclusive education system. In that regard, there are a number of very significant developments which will inform how a more inclusive education system can be developed. Following the review of the EPSON Act, which was published last year, my department has been finalising an implementation plan arising from that review. In addition, my department has also been working to finalise a road map for inclusion that has been prepared by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, on foot of a successful application to the EU's Technical Support Instrument Programme. This road map seeks to address the recommendations contained in the NCSE's policy advice on inclusive education. As mentioned earlier, my department also is working hard to finalise and publish a workforce development plan for SNAs. I now intend to establish a forum of key stakeholders, including parents, advocates, representatives from schools, unions, patrons and interested parties, to deliver a high-level action plan on the next steps. This plan will be led by our stakeholders and by those with lived experience. It is intended that this forum will be independently chaired to ensure it can deliver the reforms required in a way that will bring cohesion to the system and provide stakeholder confidence in a robust and child-centred process that can be delivered to meet the needs of children and young people with additional needs. I will provide further information on this forum in due course. I appreciate that there is a significant body of work ahead of us, working together to agree a common consensus on the future of special education provision. But to be clear, the government is unwavering in its commitment to the area of special education, and it is committed to ensuring that young people with additional educational needs are helped to thrive and to prosper. Our track record and the next steps I have outlined are testament to that.