I thank Deputy Smith for raising what is a fair and important point. I know this is something he has worked tirelessly to improve. The current threshold of six pupils for a special class at primary level with one teacher and two SNAs was introduced in 1998, when I happened to be Minister for Education and Science. We introduced a model of this kind for the first time and brought SNAs into mainstream education. Since then, the model has supported an enormous expansion of special education provision. Of course, the Deputy's point is that it might not always work for small rural schools. He mentioned instances where it has not and has particularly identified the issue of siblings and families attending the local school. We do not want children with additional needs having to travel unduly long distances simply because their local school cannot reach a threshold. The concern is specific and legitimate. The Department probably needs to look at this to identify both the scale of the problem and what the issues are, and how one would go about dealing with the latter. The Deputy's point is that if a small rural school cannot reach the enrolment threshold of six children with additional needs, then those children may be denied a local placement, forcing families to deal with long daily journeys and often separating children from their siblings in the same school. That is an additional burden on families. The preference has been for the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and the Department to consider opening special classes in medium and larger primary schools. The issue when it comes to smaller primary schools has been more challenging. Of the 504 new special classes sanctioned so far by the NCSE for the coming school year, 330 are at primary level. More than one third, or 139, of those will be opening in primary schools with eight teachers or fewer. Of those, 69 will be opening in primary schools with four teachers or fewer. That is a significant number in itself. We need to drill down into the detail of this in order to try to identify the need and what, potentially, the response could be. This does demonstrate that the NCSE will sanction special classes in our small primary schools where there is a level of need and where there are schools with available accommodation and a willingness to open new special classes. The new inclusive special class model introduced this year is an example of an innovative step in this space, allowing 12 students to be supported in existing special classroom where space is constrained. As of now, this may not meet the Deputy’s point about the rural school threshold, but the inclusive special class model is a more innovative approach. It may provide a route to try to deal with the issues the Deputy identified. It will take a bit more working out, but-----0

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-----that may provide some opportunities into the future.

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I thank the Deputy again for his question on the Church of Ireland school in Cavan town and the special class issue. I am conscious the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is in the Chamber as well. I take it he will have taken on board what the Deputy said. On the emergency works application, there were some issues with the current proposal because it was well in excess of the minimum scope under the emergency works scheme. However, the Department of Education and Youth emergency works scheme team will work with the school to provide a solution that addresses the root issue the school is experiencing. There is hope for flexibility in that regard in order that the issue might be resolved for the school. I will talk to the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy Naughton, with a view to making sure that we can meet positively the request from the school in terms of a special class.

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