I understand fully the need for specialised provision of education across Galway. The Deputy is quite right. I did visit St. Oliver's and Esker National School recently. I know the points he made in relation to St. Vincent's and the work being done by Ability West. The Deputy also raised an issue here, even though I did not directly respond to it, in relation to equine therapy and the equine centre. I understand that and welcome his interest in it. I will give a small bit of context and then deal with a number of the issues. In County Galway, there are 180 special classes that are now operating providing capacity for over 1,080 students. This includes 12 new special classes for the 2025-26 school year. In addition, 16 new special schools have been established around the country over the last while. Seven of these schools are in County Galway and are educating 352 students with more complex educational needs. These schools are supported by the Department and the NCSE, National Council for Special Education. The NCSE has a clear picture of local demand for special class places for 2026-27 and is reviewing the information. As the Deputy quite rightly outlined, we have a number of announcements in relation to County Galway. I thank the school authorities, the patrons and the management of the schools for their engagement with the NCSE and our Department in relation to this. The NCSE and ourselves will be working very closely with families either before or after 1 October. To be very clear, 1 October was the deadline we brought forward this year. In 2025, the notification date was 1 February. We very much felt this time last year that we were too late within the school year to have identified the children that would have special educational needs at both special classes and special schools. After my appointment this time last year, one of the first decisions we made was to bring in the new 1 October deadline, so that we would have sight of the challenges we have earlier in the school year. That has brought huge benefit to us in terms of the numbers and forward planning. Like previous governments, we have been berated in relation to forward planning but we are doing a huge amount of forward planning. There has been engagement by both the Department and the NCSE with the patron bodies and school authorities right through the summer and beyond. A number of families have come to the NCSE post 1 October. I assure the Deputy we will be working very closely with all families to make sure we can provide the best possible place for them in the 2026-27 school year. The responsibility for that role is something that I take extremely seriously. In my engagement right across the country over the last 12 months, we have visited many schools, as the Deputy outlined. Many of them are looking for additional classes but many have additional classes and are doing amazing work in relation to this. The Minister, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, and her predecessor, Deputy Helen McEntee, and I have worked extremely closely to ensure we are doing the right thing for children and their families. We have engaged with all Deputies right across the House in making sure the concerns they have, quite rightly, in representing families are brought to our attention. We will try to find a resolution between the NCSE, the Department and ourselves.

Sentiment score: 0.33

I reassure the Deputy that the NCSE, the Department and ourselves meet on a weekly basis. We have 300 extra classes - 301 to be specific - sanctioned this year for the 2026-27 school year. That is four months earlier than it was previously because, as I outlined, we want to ensure that we have certainty and give information earlier to families. That is very welcome but we also have to work through a number of tranches of special classes to be announced over the next number of weeks. I assure the Deputy we are looking at notifications prior to 1 October. I explained why we brought 1 October forward in the summer and I thank the Deputy's party for welcoming it because it gave a sense we were going to have better planning. I reassure him that we will be working with those notifications both prior to and after 1 October to make sure we have the best possible supports in place. There is a huge demand for special education teachers, support teachers and SNAs within the system. We have almost 25,000 SNAs working within educational services at the moment. We need to make sure that students who need specialised education are getting the best possible supports. I genuinely believe that the State will now put in the proper supports while they are of schoolgoing age. Last week, we announced education therapy services for 45 special schools. The intention and decision taken by the Government was that that would be rolled out to special classes and on to mainstream schools to ensure that children who have additional educational needs get the best possible supports at school time. This is because it will serve not just the students and their families but society well into the future.

Sentiment score: 0.53

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the Gaelscoil in Youghal. This falls under the remit of my senior Minister, Deputy Naughton, so I am taking it on her behalf. Educational disadvantage is a key priority for the Minister, the rest of the Government and me. The DEIS programme is a key policy initiative for addressing concentrated disadvantage at school level. Supplementing universal supports, the DEIS programme provides a fair and targeted way to address concentrated educational disadvantage that promotes equity and meets the needs of children and young people. Currently, the DEIS programme supports almost 1,200 primary and post-primary schools, reaching almost 260,000 students, with an annual investment of over €180 million. Budget 2026 allocates an additional €16.5 million, rising to €48 million in 2027, to support the implementation of a new DEIS strategy and to introduce the DEIS plus scheme, which will commence this year. Schools that were included in the expansion of the programme in 2022 were those with the highest concentration of children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage, as identified through the refined DEIS identification model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme. The model was applied equitably to all schools - I will come back to that in a few moments - including those already in the DEIS programme to ensure that they were in the band that best addressed their level of disadvantage. Urban primary schools with the highest levels of disadvantage were assigned to urban band 1. DEIS urban band 2 schools also face significant need and receive a broad range of supports, including reduced pupil-teacher ratios, additional school grants, access to the home school community liaison scheme, the school completion programme, literacy and numeracy initiatives and targeted attendance and retention measures. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, is committed to tackling educational disadvantage in all schools to ensure all children can reach their full potential. To this end, a new ten-year DEIS strategy to 2035 will be published in the coming weeks. The new strategy will introduce innovative solutions to address educational disadvantage and to continue to address the gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools. Any future changes to the identification model and overall allocation of resources will be considered within the context of the new DEIS strategy. The new strategy will focus on improving the opportunities and achievement levels of children at risk of educational disadvantage, developing more innovative approaches to tackling educational disadvantage, and working towards a more flexible system of supports to ensure that schools receive the right level of support at the right time. The Deputy mentioned Youghal. There were strict criteria for getting DEIS status. We understand the importance of DEIS status. The Deputy made the case for the Gaelscoil in Youghal. I will take it on board and take it back. A huge amount of work by the Minister and the Department has gone into the new strategy to make sure it comes forward and I welcome it. It will be announced in the coming weeks. The Deputy can rest assured that I will take on board the points he made about the Gaelscoil and feed them back to the Department.

Sentiment score: 0.16

I will certainly pass on the comments to the Minister. She brings a wealth of experience because she served in the role I am in now quite recently so has a good understanding and has hit the ground running on these issues. It is not right. We are putting forward a programme and there is huge commitment by the Government. A total of €180 million is being put into this matter currently and more money will be pumped into it again this year and again in 2027. That shows that the Government, including the Minister, and the Department of education understand the positive benefits of DEIS for school communities and, more importantly, how it has helped students and given them the best possible chance in life. I constantly say it. We have done this continuously in Ireland. One thing we can be exceptionally proud of is the education system we have developed over 100 years. It has served us extremely well. The more investment we can put into education - the Deputy mentioned this in relation to special classes, but into all education, whether it is in disadvantaged areas or whatever - the better. It is a great leveller in terms of giving people the best possible chance. The DEIS programme looks at making sure pupils stay in school and get the best possible outcomes from school. That may be difficult in some circumstances but we will work with the Deputy. If the Deputy puts in the full details, we will respond accordingly. There is just one thing. The Deputy mentioned Youghal being rural. Where I come from at the other side of the county, in a particularly rural part of the world, I would nearly call Youghal a city. That being said, I will continue to work with the Deputy.

Sentiment score: 0.28