Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta ós rud é gur chuir sé an t-ábhar tábhachtach seo ar an gclár inniu. Gabhann an tAire, an Teachta Browne, a leithscéal. Níl sé in ann a bheith linn um thráthnóna. At the outset, I should point out that the operation of the public water supply and the wastewater supply are operational issues locally for Uisce Éireann, which has statutory responsibility for all aspects. The Minister, Deputy Browne, does not have operational function in the matters to which the Deputy refers. We have, however, enquired with Uisce Éireann and have been informed that the aftermath of Storm Chandra remains an active incident across the country as Uisce Éireann works side by side with the other responsible agencies and first responders to deal with the impacts. We are very grateful, as I am sure the Ceann Comhairle is, for everybody who been working hard all around the country where it has been badly affected.
Sentiment score: 0.11
Across Louth and other affected counties, Uisce Éireann teams are still actively responding to the impact of the storm to triage incidents, to prioritise safety-critical interventions and to ensure that essential services remain operational. The exact cause of specific flood incidents observed in parts of Dundalk remain unclear. Multiple factors, including ground saturation, river level fluctuations and tidal interactions relating to coastal positioning can influence flooding behaviour during storms. A full post-incident review will be undertaken once conditions stabilise. Findings and insights will be shared to the appropriate channels, including the national emergency co-ordination group, NECG, and other oversight bodies, to support continuous improvements of Uisce Éireann's national emergency preparedness and response frameworks. Throughout this flood event in Dundalk and nationally, Uisce Éireann continues to issue public safety information where required, to support local authorities in mitigation efforts and to deploy crews to areas of greatest need. It will maintain full operational readiness, provide ongoing situational updates, and engage with Departments and all stakeholders. All efforts remain focused on public safety, minimising disruption and restoring normal conditions. Under the revised national development plan, NDP, the Government has scaled up support for the water sector by means of a record allocation of €12.2 billion in funding out to 2030. Uisce Éireann will be allocated 95% of this. The funding will support the delivery of a wide range of projects in our cities and regions required for housing delivery, safeguarding public health and the environment and, crucially, the capacity required for new housing targets. The Government is committed to making sure that all aspects of water infrastructure are strengthened and that communities feel the benefit of the unprecedented development in water services announced in the NDP.
Sentiment score: 0.37
I have huge empathy with the Deputy and the residents. My suggestion would be to let Uisce Éireann and the council deal with the immediate aftermath of what is happening this week. Thereafter, it is fair to say, Uisce Éireann has responsibility for wastewater and the sewerage system in general. The local authority is responsible for drainage. It is probably a case of knocking heads together in the context of the combined systems and maybe trying to arrange a meeting between the local authority and Uisce Éireann. They should be given a bit of time to deal with the aftermath of the storms. However, the other matter is something both entities probably need to work on. I would definitely encourage them to come together on that, particularly Uisce Éireann with its big budget. It is still a local authority issue when there is a problem with drains.
Sentiment score: 0.17
I will take it back to the Minister.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I thank the Deputy for making this important case. The Government is committed to the provision of additional special school places for children with special educational needs. Budget 2026 secured funding for 3,000 new specialist places and the NCSE is currently looking at where these places should be best located for the school year 2026-2027. There is a lot of work going on at the moment in that regard. Over 2,700 new places were provided in 2025-2026, meaning there are now 3,741 special classes nationwide. That means there will be 300 more additional places. There will be 3,000 new specialist places next September. There were 2,700 new special places in this school year, so we are building on work we are doing. We need to build on it and put provision in the types of locations the Deputy is talking about, where it is best placed to meet existing and future demand. In County Kildare, there are 148 special classes in operation providing capacity for 888 kids. This includes 17 new special classes in this school year, 2025-2026. In addition, 16 new special schools have been established in recent years. Six of these special schools are in County Kildare educating approximately 359 students with the most complex needs. These are supported by the Department and the National Council for Special Education. The NCSE will have a clear picture of local demand for special class places for the school year starting September after it reviews and assesses all the information it has got through the parents’ notification process, which closed last October. As the Deputy is aware, an earlier deadline was introduced this year to support forward planning and to better equip the NCSE with local information as to what students would be leaving school, transitioning to post-primary, or who is seeking specialist placement and maybe entering the education system for the first time. The information is critical to decide where to put provision. The Department and the NCSE continue to work closely with school patron bodies, management bodies and schools to confirm these new special classes for next September. We have begun sanctioning new special classes this month. Some 236 have been sanctioned to date and many more will be confirmed in the coming weeks. Of these, 11 are in County Kildare. The earlier sanctioning of new classes happening this year provides clarity for parents and allows schools more time for the planning and establishment of new special classes. The vast majority of new special classes being announced are being provided in available school accommodation which is being reconfigured as a special class. Each special class is allocated one teacher and two SNAs, and at post-primary level schools should receive 1.5 teachers posts and two SNAs. Details of those special classes are on the NCSE website. Once special classes are sanctioned by the NCSE, it is envisaged that schools will open admission for them. The NCSE will continue to support all children made known to them after the dates but obviously it works better if the information can be provided. There is still a huge amount of work ongoing and that is just the way it is. It is still earlier than it has been before.
Sentiment score: 0.38
I assure people that this process is still under way. Quite frankly, the Department of education does not look at it in terms of Kildare South or Kildare North. It looks at the children who are there. Through the process that will balance out. There will be more in Kildare North, I assume because it is a bigger population. I also assume it will balance out as the process goes on. The idea that this is some sort of political decision is wrong. It is based on the needs of-----
Sentiment score: -0.02
I do not know. The Deputy keeps talking about constituencies and why one constituency is getting more than another. The Department-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Department has information about children and is going through that information. It has not come to any final decision and there will be quite a few more announcements to be made. It is about the children and their constitutional right to be educated, which we are proud to have in this country. It needs to be implemented and the Department and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, work every day of the week to execute and implement that right. The Department continues to engage with the NCSE. The vast majority of students with special educational needs get supported to attend school in mainstream classes with their peers. We have 15,000 special education teachers in Ireland and 12,500 special needs assistants. It is a huge number of people. For children with more complex needs, special classes or special school places are provided. This is in keeping with our policy on inclusive education, which promotes that children will be supported to receive an education in the most inclusive setting. The NCSE advises that a small number of places remain available in some other counties. That is simply a fact and the NCSE remains available to provide advice and support to all families seeking a placement and will continue to examine where provision is required for the 2026-2027 year so that this can be done right and the right decisions can be made as to where children are, and where those classes are needed. I have no doubt that every single offer from a school to provide a class is taken with the utmost seriousness in the Department. The Department will have to make sure the children are there in those areas. That process is still under way and is by no means concluded.
Sentiment score: 0.24
On the individual case, I strongly urge the Deputy to give the details to me or directly to the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan. The Government is committed to the provision of additional special places for children with special educational needs. There is funding, as I said previously, for 3,000 new specialist places and the NCSE today is currently examining where those are best located for the 2026-27 school year. We now have 3,741 special classes around the country, and we will build on this figure. The determination from the Minister and the NCSE is to place them where kids need them. That work is still ongoing. In County Dublin, we have 705 special classes providing capacity for 4,230 kids. This includes 103 new special classes opened in Dublin in this current school year, of which 81 are at primary level. In addition, 16 new special schools have been established in recent years. There are 40 special schools in Dublin and two of the five special schools opened this year are in Dublin. These schools are supported by the Department and the NCSE. In budget 2026, funding for 3,000 new special educational places has been provided. The NCSE is currently examining where they are needed in order that children can avail of their constitutional right to free primary education. In order to ensure new special classes can open as quickly as possible, the NCSE prioritises working with medium and larger primary schools that do not already have special classes and that have accommodation available to facilitate new special classes. This approach maximises the use of existing space which can be reconfigured efficiently while also ensuring that new provision continues to be established. It also increases the number of schools with special classes, providing parents with greater choice and reducing the distances that some students are forced to travel to get a school place. However, as in other years, where schools have no accommodation available, particularly at second level, and where there is known demand in an area, the Department will continue to provide additional classroom accommodation to provide necessary places. The Department and the NCSE continue to work closely with school patron bodies, school management bodies and schools to confirm new special classes for the 2026-27 school year. The NCSE began sanctioning new special classes this month, which is several months ahead of last year. A total of 263 have been sanctioned to date. Many more new special classes will be confirmed in the coming weeks. The earlier sanctioning of new classes is good because it provides better – not perfect but better – clarity than parents previously had. The vast majority of new special classes announced are being provided in available school accommodation that is being reconfigured for a special class. New special classes are being established in every county, with 58 new special classes confirmed for Dublin so far. Further information on additional new special classes will be confirmed in the coming weeks. It is envisaged that schools will open admissions for those new special classes after the sanctioning. I stress the NCSE will continue to support all children made known to it. Of course, it is critical that the NCSE has timely access to local knowledge to plan future provision.
Sentiment score: 0.39
We have to guarantee those places for children. The Government is acutely conscious of that. Work is ongoing to ensure that this guarantee, which, in my view, derives from the Constitution, is fulfilled for every child who needs a school place. The Department continues to engage intensively with the NCSE to forward plan for new special provision to get a place for every single child in the setting that best suits their needs. The NCSE is continuing to engage with a large number of schools across Dublin in the context of sanctioning further new special classes for the coming school year. While there was an announcement some weeks ago, there is still a lot of work going on. That was the first batch of them and there will be further batches. The Department and the NCSE have been working on this earlier in the year and I welcome what the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, has done in this regard because it gives more certainty. It is not perfect but there is more information available and at an earlier stage than was the case previously. Again, I have no doubt that the Department and the NCSE will be out with further announcements in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if Deputies Wall and Ward wish to engage directly with the Minister of State in relation to those particular individuals, I am sure he would very much welcome that.
Sentiment score: 0.29
I thank Deputy Cummins for raising this matter. The Minister for Education and Youth has asked me to set out the position with regard to youth work provision and the funding supports available. Supporting youth services and youth work is an absolute priority for the Department of Education and Youth. The Department is committed to ensuring that young people in Ballyfermot and everywhere else in the country have access to valuable resources and opportunities that enable them to thrive. The UBU, Your Place Your Space, scheme is the Department’s largest funded youth scheme targeting young people aged between ten and 24 years who are identified as marginalised, vulnerable and at risk of not flourishing. It delivers evidence-informed interventions that promote soft skills, confidence, and progression into education, training or employment, and provides the foundation for local youth organisations to deliver tailored supports that meet the needs of their communities. A budget of €50.7 million was allocated under the UBU scheme in 2025, representing a 4.5% increase on budget 2024. Over €17 million of that budget was allocated to City of Dublin Education and Training Board, CDETB, in its capacity as a grant administering body of the UBU scheme. In 2025, the Department allocated over €623,000 to Ballyfermot Youth Service under the UBU scheme to sustain core youth services, ensuring consistent support for young people. This represents a 4.5% increase on the previous year. Ballyfermot Youth Service caters to a wide range of young people and provides a diverse set of programmes, including non-formal education programmes, drop-in information sessions, music and arts programmes and access to the Erasmus+ programme. As the Deputy outlined, the work of Ballyfermot Youth Service empowers young people to make positive decisions around their life choices and to meet their needs by providing appropriate social, personal and development programmes. In addition, the Department allocated approximately €40,000 to Ballyfermot Youth Service in resilience and effectiveness funding. The service also received over €28,000 in 2025 as part of the summer holiday meals pilot programme, which supported the provision of meals to young people during the summer period. Further funding was allocated to Ballyfermot Youth Service under the local youth club grant scheme. Although the 2025 local youth club grant scheme annual reports have not yet been received by the Department, in 2024 Ballyfermot Youth Service received €4,000 in funding under this particular heading. Under the Estimates for the Department of Education and Youth, the youth affairs unit has been allocated an increase of €8 million in current and capital expenditure. While the high-level allocations are confirmed, a specific timeline for the release of the final detailed breakdown of the youth affairs schemes and programmes is not yet available. Work is continuing within the Department to finalise these allocations and they will be issued as soon as possible. There may well be funding from other Government Departments that Ballyfermot Youth Service could avail of. The Deputy can be assured that the Government values the work that is done by the service. We are eager to continue to fund it as best we can because we know that the work being done there is highly valuable.
Sentiment score: 0.36
Deputy Cummins can be assured that the Department, Minister and officials will continue to actively engage with City of Dublin ETB, youth services and young people to ensure that there is appropriate provision for young people in Ballyfermot. The Department's commitment builds on the significant work already undertaken through targeted funding and collaborative initiatives, which have strengthened youth services and expanded opportunities for inclusion and development. The Department is committed in its support for inclusive, needs-based youth work that empowers young people to thrive and contribute positively to their communities. The Department will maintain a proactive approach to ensure services in Ballyfermot and across the country remain responsive, accessible and impactful for all young people. I have no doubt the Minister and Department officials will take very much into account what the Deputy said and the case she has made in making funding allocations.
Sentiment score: 0.54