Special Education Needs Provision in Ireland-Fail to plan and plan to fail.

According to an article in the Irish Independent newspaper this morning, February 26^th, our government is heading for another special education crisis. It has been claimed that up to 600 special education classes are required to meet the number of children requiring a special class place this September. Our Taoiseach in response to this announcement by Deputy Eoghan Kenny in the Dail debate last night stated “Earlier this year, we brought forward the application date for schools and parents who require special education places for their children. The numbers have increased exponentially this year. Perhaps it is because of the earlier date or there may be other factors. It is over and above anything that was contemplated and, in particular, many more have come in post the October deadline”

So how did we get here???

In May 2025 the new Notify portal deadline of October 1^st was announced for children waiting a special class placement in September 2026. Four months earlier than previous. This was despite the fact that children who missed the February 1^st deadline still had no placement for the 2025/2026 school year.

In June 2025, Minister McEntee, the then Minister for Education and Youth, attended the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Youth and confirmed that she would provide the committee with the number of children without a school place for September 2025. This never happened.

The "Single Digits" Myth: Opposition TDs pointed out in Mid-September that while Minister Moynihan had used "single digits" in July to describe the waiting list outside Dublin, by mid-September, the Equality in Education campaign and local reps had identified over 200 children nationwide with no placement.

On the 9^th of December, Minister Moynihan stated in the Dail that “For the 2025/26 school year the NCSE advise that a small number of special class places remain in most counties for those still seeking placement. While these places may not be in a preferred school, vacancies do exist” 

Indeed an article was published in the Irish Examiner in November 2025 stating that there were 782 special class spaces vacant. Yet we knew then and now that c200 children did not have a special class space for September 2025.

Fast forward to February 2026, we now learn that up to 600 special classes are required despite only 400 being budgeted for in Budget 2026. One might surmise that the c200 children without places in September 2025, were not factored into the overall planning for 2026 provision because they had an inappropriate school place or receiving Home Tuition. We know from previous engagement with the NCSE they do not collate that data. 

The stringent deadlines for the Notify portal have not worked. Despite multiple attempts to ascertain the number of applications received through the portal through parliamentary questions in the last four months, the Department has not supplied the figures. Now is the time to finally do so.

Clearly the NCSE has erred in their estimates for this year. It is now clear that either additional funding will have to be allocated to provide these extra 200 classes or upwards of 800 children will not have an appropriate special class place this year.

We at F.U.S.S Ireland are calling for an independent review of the NCSE data collection methods and the overall special class planning process. We need and deserve clarity and what is proposed to avoid a repeat of the situation next year. There must be accountability for this egregious error. We cannot have a situation where upwards of 800 children will not have an appropriate school place this September. 

Our government cannot continue to fail children with special educational needs. 

End

F.U.S.S Ireland Executive