Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I recently announced the establishment of the Educational Therapy Support Service which will see the permanent appointment of 39 occupational and speech and language therapists, as well as 5 behaviour practitioners to the National Council for Special Education (NCSE). Therapists will work with teachers and other school personnel to build their capacity to provide as effectively as possible for the needs of students, one example being language programmes co-designed by teachers and speech and language therapists. Behaviour Practitioners will support schools to promote engagement and participation for all students.

The expansion of therapy services within the NCSE is expected to build on the achievements and impact of the in-school therapy supports services in the School Inclusion Model (SIM) pilot. SIM involved speech and language and occupational therapists working to systematically build the capacity of school communities to meet students’ needs.

The provision of clinical therapy supports to children is the responsibility of the HSE, through Primary Care or the Children’s Network Disability Team (CDNT). The Educational Therapy Support Service model will enable the NCSE to work in a complementary manner with health services and should, over time, facilitate the HSE to target its resources at those with the greatest clinical needs.

The overarching purpose of the Educational Therapy Support Service will be to improve learning outcomes for students, ensure teachers are better equipped to support all students and reduce the demand for additional resources in schools.

Educational Therapy Support Service therapists will work in partnership with school communities, NCSE colleagues and where appropriate NEPS and HSE professionals to promote the participation and inclusion of all students particularly those with special education needs. They’ll work all levels of a multi-tiered system of support, providing educational support for students with the greatest level of need. The NCSE will maintain oversight of clinical governance and professional development requirements of all therapists.

The next steps in this expansion process will include a robust recruitment process within the NCSE to attract persons with the relevant skills and qualifications.

The NCSE intends to be operationally ready to deliver therapy services in the Eastern and Western regions for the commencement of the school year in September, moving to full implementation of all posts by October 2024.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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85. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide an update on a school (details supplied). [29926/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Setanta Special School is part of a large-scale capital campus project together with Ballyowen Meadows Special School, to be co-located on campus at the existing site in Stillorgan. The project brief was to provide 2 ten classroom special schools with General Purpose hall and all associated ancillary accommodation on the same site. The project is included in my Department’s Construction Programme and is being delivered under the National Development Plan (NDP) as part of Project Ireland 2040 framework.

Setanta Special School is a co-educational day school, catering for Post Primary children with special needs on the Autistic Spectrum. The project brief for Setanta Special School was subsequently amended to increase the number of classrooms to twelve along with some minor internal alterations to meet the current needs of the school.

Works commenced on site in June 2023 with an estimated completion timeframe of 18 months. However, due to a number of unforeseen site issues, and additional delays in relation to the relocation of ESB wires, which were outside the control of my Department, the campus project was delayed on site. In a recent update from the Design Team, overall completion for the campus project for the two special schools is now estimated at Quarter 3 of 2025. Whilst the Setanta Special School building will be largely complete in late 2024/early 2025, it is important to bear in mind that it is a campus project to provide 2 schools on the same site. The Design Team are assessing the scope for phasing the handover of the campus so that the Setanta School building could be occupied at an earlier stage. However, this needs careful analysis from a technical, safety and education perspective given that it would relate to a special school operating beside a live construction site on the same campus. The Design Team and my Department’s Planning and Building Unit are liaising closely on this matter and will continue to keep the school communities updated on progress and timelines. Special Schools are a key priority for my Department, and we will continue to work hard to ensure that any delays are minimised to the greatest extent possible.

Since 2020, my Department has invested in the region of €4.9 billion in our schools throughout the country, involving the completion of over 900 school building projects and with construction currently underway at approximately 300 other projects, which includes 30 new school buildings. These 300 projects currently at construction involve a total State investment of over €1.2bn.

I also announced earlier in the year that close to 90 projects, including 28 new school buildings, would be authorised to proceed from tender stage to construction over the course of 2024 and early 2025. In total, around €800 million will be invested in these projects under my department’s Large Scale Capital Programme and Additional Accommodation Scheme for essential classroom accommodation.

Between projects currently under construction and projects moving to construction in this latest phase, investments by my Department are adding over 550,000 square metres of new and modernised capacity to our school estate.

This is a record level of investment in school buildings. It will expand the number of school places, significantly increase provision for special education and upgrade and modernise our school infrastructure. The impact of this will be felt in communities right around the country.

My Department’s approach is to maximise the usage of existing capacity in the school estate and, in tandem with this, to manage the progression of the existing pipeline of projects within available budgets and in line with the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines. This allows my Department to keep a strong focus on the provision of additional capacity to cater for demographics, new housing developments and the roll-out of additional special classes for children with additional needs.