Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 17 Nov 2022

Vol. 290 No. 2

Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters

Energy Conservation

Senator Maria Byrne

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, for coming in to discuss this all-important issue. My question is to set out the criteria relating to the home energy grants. I know it is not his area, and I know he is covering for the Minister, Deputy Ryan, today. I mean no offence to him but I am a little disappointed because there were a couple of questions I wanted to put to the Minister that are very relevant to the criteria. A lady who contacted me is living in a housing estate and the house next door to her gets a 100% grant but she gets no grant because even though the foundations of her house were started in 2006, the house was not completed in 2006. One of the main questions I wanted to ask was around how the year of 2006 was arrived at. I know some date had to be picked, but there are many other people in a similar situation. People are living in an estate where some of the houses were completed in 2006 while others were not even though they were all started in 2006 and they do not qualify for the grant. The person I spoke to is on social welfare and is in receipt of illness benefit as they are not able to work. They would like to get their house retrofitted, but the fact is that they cannot have it done because they cannot afford it. If they were able to get the 100% grant, it would make life an awful lot easier for them.

I also had an older person contact me this morning. I know we are trying to phase out boilers and change over to heat pumps. However, they would have to change their whole heating system. There are a lot of issues that the Minister, if he was here, may have been able to address. I am sure the Minister of State will have the criteria that are set out and I look forward to hearing them because sometimes questions are sent in to the Department and the response received is a little lacking. I look forward to his detailed response, and we can take it from there.

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Deputy Frankie Feighan)

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this important issue and for the opportunity to give an update on the criteria for home energy upgrades on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Ryan. The Government funds a number of grant schemes, as the Senator knows, to support homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their properties. These are administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. Last February Government launched a range of new measures to make it easier and more affordable for homeowners to undertake home energy upgrades. This included the launch of the new national home energy upgrade scheme, which provides increased grant levels of up to 50% of the cost of a typical deep retrofit to a B2 BER standard.

This included the launch of the new national home energy upgrade scheme, which provides increased grant levels of up to 50% of the cost of a typical deep retrofit to a B2 building energy rating, BER, standard. This scheme is available for privately-owned homes built and occupied before 2011. Homes upgraded under the scheme must reach a post-works BER rating of B2 or better and deliver a minimum energy uplift of 100 kWh per square metre per year. Non-corporate landlords and approved housing bodies, AHBs, are eligible for the scheme.

The better energy warmer homes scheme delivers a range of energy efficiency measures free of charge to low-income households vulnerable to energy poverty. In order to qualify for support, applicants must own and live in their home, which must have been built and occupied before 2006. They must be in receipt of certain social welfare payments. The scheme is currently available to households in receipt of fuel allowance under the national fuel scheme; jobseeker's allowance for more than six months and have a child aged under seven years; family income supplement; one-parent family payment; domiciliary care allowance; carer's allowance where a person lives with the person he or she is caring for; and disability allowance for more than six months and have a child under seven years of age.

A number of reforms to this scheme were announced by the Government earlier this year. Changes included allowing applications from qualifying homeowners who previously received supports under the scheme but could still benefit from deeper upgrade measures. This means that homeowners will not be precluded from applying for a second time for qualifying works not previously carried out on their properties. The scheme will also target the worst performing properties by prioritising homes that were built and occupied before 1993 and have a pre-works BER of E, F or G. Existing applications will not be affected by this change.

Under the better energy homes scheme, grants are provided to homeowners and non-corporate landlords who want to take a step-by-step approach to upgrading their homes. For fabric measures such as insulation, homes must be built and occupied prior to 2011. For heat pumps or solar thermal measures, changes were introduced this year to broaden the criteria meaning homes built and occupied before 2021 are now eligible for these measures.

The community energy grant scheme supports cross-sectoral and community-orientated partnership approaches that deliver energy savings to a range of building types, including public, commercial and community buildings, and has a particular focus on using the projects to deliver home retrofits. Under this scheme, homeowners apply for grant support through a project co-ordinator who then manages the delivery of the retrofit project on behalf of the homeowner. Similar to the national home energy upgrade scheme, this scheme is available for privately-owned homes built and occupied before 2011. Homes upgraded under the scheme must reach a post-works BER rating of B2 or better and must deliver a minimum energy uplift of 100 kWh per square metre per year. Non-corporate landlords and approved housing bodies are eligible for the scheme. As the Senator will know, demand for these schemes has been exceptionally strong following the changes announced earlier this year. I will give further detail in this regard in my closing statement.

If I may have a little latitude, I will mention the house that was built but not completed in 2006. I will bring that matter back to the Minister.

Senator Maria Byrne

I thank the Minister of State. It is good to get a clear answer and have the criteria set out with regard to the different schemes. Many small niche areas end up falling between the cracks, including cases where one household qualifies and the household next door does not. We need to address some of the issues in that regard. I will send a note to the Minister because there are a number of issues. Some people, particularly older people, find the process very difficult to get someone to answer the questions because much of this is done online. There are also waiting lists. I know of people who have been told they must wait 18 months or two years before they will be able to get works carried out. That is also an area the Department needs to address. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber this morning. I know this is not his area. I will send a note to the Minister directly.

Deputy Frankie Feighan

I listened with interest to the points raised by the Senator. I thank her again for raising this very important issue. As we see in all our constituency offices, this matter is very pertinent. I will bring these issues back to the Minister.

The Government has set ambitious targets for Ireland to achieve by the end of the decade, including almost halving greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector, upgrading almost 30% of the housing stock to a BER of B2 cost-optimal or carbon equivalent and installing 400,000 heat pumps in existing homes to replace older, less efficient heating systems. This constitutes one of the most ambitious retrofitting programmes worldwide.

This year has seen exceptionally high demand and there has been a huge uptake. Almost 41,000 applications have been received, which is an increase of 152% on the same period last year. Nearly 19,000 energy upgrades have been completed, which is an increase of 59%. More than 3,600 homes have been upgraded under the SEAI energy poverty schemes and almost 6,000 homes have been upgraded to a BER of B2 or better. The Department is working closely with the SEAI to build on this strong performance. There is a robust activity plan for the rest of the year.

Acting Chairperson (Senator Mary Seery Kearney)

I thank the Minister of State. I will make a comment before we move on to the next Commencement matter. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, is a great colleague whom I very much value as a parliamentarian. However, there is trend of responses being given by Ministers who are not from the Departments to which the Commencement matters are addressed. With due respect, the Minister of State was given a speech to read out in the House, most of which I could have taken from a website. It is disrespectful to the Seanad and the constitutional positions of Senators that we have this growing trend that it is somehow acceptable to send people in with an answer. The whole purpose of a Commencement matter is that it is a bespoke engagement of a Senator with a particular Minister about an issue to do with his or her Department, which needs to be explored in the course of the Commencement debate. It is wholly unacceptable that we have this trend.

I tabled a number of Commencements recently and, similarly, a Minister of State who is not even in the relevant Department came to the House to answer them. I will raise the issue again on the Order of Business later, as all Senators should. The manner in which Commencement matters are being handled treats Senators and the Seanad with contempt. We need to raise an objection to that. That is not a reflection on the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who is, as I said, a very fine colleague. I call Senator Boylan.

Energy Conservation

Senator Lynn Boylan

I thank the Acting Chairperson very much. I am glad she raised that issue. There are two problems with the Commencement matters. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who is does not have the portfolio, nor is he in Department relating to the Commencement matter I raised. I also have an issue with the Seanad Office accepting that the Department I wanted to answer the question refused and passed the buck to another Department. I wanted the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to respond to this matter. It passed the buck to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and today I have a Minister of State who is not in either of those Departments here to answer the question.

I raise an issue faced by renters and owner occupiers in apartment buildings with management companies. Clauses in rental agreements prohibit residents from drying their clothes outside on balconies, in gardens, from windows and, in some cases, even inside the property if the clothing is visible from the outside. In principle, it is a draconian overreach by landlords and management companies to tell people how they should be drying their clothes. I cannot think of any good reason landlords feel the need to do this, besides preserving some warped aesthetic sensibility which smacks of snobbery to me. If that is the case, they need to grow up. We live in the real world. We are in a cost-of-living crisis and a climate crisis. The implications for the tenant and society certainly trump the aesthetics of having some clothes hanging on a clothesline.

The net effect of these bans is that people are left with no choice but to use energy-intensive appliances such as tumble dryers. Unfortunately, I wanted to say this to the Minister or a Minister of State in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, which is currently running a campaign on the national airwaves telling people not to use their tumble dryers, and it is absolutely correct.

They are energy intensive, but the Department is literally gaslighting entire swathes of the population who have no choice but to use tumble dryers because their management companies or tenancy agreements will not allow them to dry their clothes outside, or on clothes horses on balconies. In a cost-of-living crisis, the use of tumble dryers adds to the cost. There are also health implications because if renters cannot dry their clothes out on the balcony or they cannot afford to use the dryer, the moisture is not good for their respiratory illnesses either.

What needs to happen to solve the problem, which does not fall to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, is that legislation must be amended to create an obligation on landlords and management companies to allow renters and owner-occupiers to dry their clothes. That could be achieved by amending section 12 of the Residential Tenancies Act. I look forward to hearing the response that was sent by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, which will probably tell me all about the wonderful campaigns it is running on the airwaves about how we can save energy. What I really want is to get a response from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which I will continue to try to pursue.

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Deputy Frankie Feighan)

I thank Senator Boylan for raising this very important issue. It is timely to give an update on the Government's supports for landlords to retrofit their rental properties.

The climate action plan has set ambitious targets to retrofit the equivalent of 500,000 homes to a building energy rating of B2 and to install 400,000 heat pumps. In the residential rental sector, the so-called split-incentive issue can arise when incentives to invest in energy-efficiency upgrades are misaligned between landlords and tenants. My Department undertook a public consultation in late 2019 and early 2020 on the split-incentive issue, as it impacts on the objective to improve energy-efficiency standards in the rental sector. The findings from the consultation have informed the development of a number of new measures aimed at improving the energy efficiency of the rental sector. The Government's Housing for All Plan commits to the introduction of a minimum BER for private rental properties, where feasible, from 2025, and to develop a roadmap to implement these standards. The national home energy upgrade scheme and the community energy grant scheme, which are administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, offer grants of up to 50% of the total cost of upgrades to B2 BER and are available to private landlords. Higher grant amounts are available to approved housing bodies. Private landlords can also avail of new increased rates of grant support to upgrade their rental properties on a step-by-step basis under the better energy homes scheme. As the Senator is aware, this includes 80% grants for attic and cavity wall insulation and a €700 grant for heating controls.

Just last week, my colleague, the Minister for Finance, announced a new tax incentive to encourage small-scale landlords to undertake retrofitting works. This measure will provide for a tax deduction of up to €10,000 per property, against case V rental income, for certain retrofitting expenses incurred by the landlord on rented residential properties, for a maximum of two rental properties. This new tax deduction is in addition to the SEAl's grants, and the combination of both measures offers substantial support to landlords to retrofit their rental properties. I have read out exactly what Senator Boylan said I would be reading out. I thank her for her indulgence. It is also intended that non-corporate landlords will be able to avail of the planned low-cost loan scheme for retrofitting when it is launched early next year. In addition, the climate action plan commits to upgrading 36,500 local authority-owned homes to B2 by 2030. An allocation of €87 million was provided for this programme in budget 2023. The new action plan to combat energy poverty will be published in the coming weeks. This action plan will set out the range of measures being implemented ahead of the coming winter, as well as key longer-term measures to ensure those least able to afford increased energy costs are supported and protected.

I agree with Senator Boylan's proposal. We are all trying to cut down on the use of tumble dryers. I hope renters and owner-occupiers will be allowed to dry their clothes on balconies. There must be some flexibility. I will bring the proposal back to the Minister because it makes sense. I was aware of some draconian measures, but in the current climate it would make great sense. The action plan to combat energy poverty might contain some detail in that regard. As Senator Boylan says, there may need to be a change in legislation.

Senator Lynn Boylan

I thank the Minister of State. Will he bring the proposal back to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who is responsible for it despite the fact that the Department says it is not responsible for it? When we read the Standing Orders governing Commencement matters, it proves that we should be getting a response on the issue from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I remind the House that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage is a relevant body under the climate Act, so there is a responsibility there, and that it does not all fall to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications.

What the Minister of State has outlined from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications about retrofitting homes is all well and good, but he also referred to the split incentive for tenants, which depends on the landlord doing it. I would caution the Government on the tax breaks for landlords to ensure that the qualifying works are not the same as the list used to evict tenants and break the rent freeze. We must also be very careful that we are not creating a loophole so that if landlords retrofit, and it is under the qualifying list of works, they will be able to increase the rent beyond the rent cap and avoid the eviction ban when the moratorium on evictions is lifted. I urge the Minister of State to report the caution that I have raised with the Minister. I welcome the new energy poverty strategy. It is worth noting that it lapsed in 2019.

Deputy Frankie Feighan

I thank the Senator. The Government is acutely aware of the impact recent increases in global energy prices are having on households, and the urgent need to support people to stay warm in their homes this winter. We look up the weather every day. Thankfully, it is not as cold as it often it is at this time of year. A €2.4 billion package of supports was implemented in 2022, and a package of once-off measures worth €2.5 billion was included in budget 2023. The budget package includes the electricity costs emergency benefit scheme, through which €550, exclusive of VAT, is credited to each domestic electricity account in three payments. This will happen in November and December 2022 and in January-February and March-April 2023. The cost of the scheme is estimated at €1.2 billion. In addition to that scheme, there are many other supports such as the €400 lump sum for those in receipt of the fuel allowance; a €200 lump sum for pensioners and people with disabilities getting the living-alone allowance; and a €500 cost-of-living lump sum to all families getting the working family payment. The double payment of child benefit will support all families with children. A €500 cost-of-living payment will be paid in November to people in receipt of the carer's support grant. A €500 cost-of-living disability support grant will be paid to all people in receipt of a long-term disability payment. We are acutely aware that it is a very difficult time for everybody, given the increase in costs. I hope that in the coming weeks and months, the costs will come back to a level we can all live with.

Heritage Centres

Senator Mary Fitzpatrick

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as ucht bheith anseo inniu. I have a very simple question and I would like a very simple answer to it. When is the State going to open the 1916 commemorative centre at 14-17 Moore Street? The address was the last headquarters of the 1916 leaders - Pearse, Connolly and others. It is more than 100 years ago. We celebrated the centenary in 2016. Since I was first elected to the city council in 2004, I have worked with relatives of those involved in 1916, street traders, the city council and Members of the Oireachtas from all parties and none. There is a very strong proposal to develop a State-run heritage-focused 1916 commemorative centre. As a member of the ministerial advisory committee, I was very proud to work with others and we produced a report, which was adopted by the Government. We have repeatedly been promised a start date. This is the fourth time that I have raised the issue as a Commencement matter in the past year or so. I have raised it at Oireachtas joint committee meetings and within my own party.

Therefore, the Minister of State will appreciate the level of disappointment and frustration. We had a great moment when the Government assigned €12 million in urban regeneration funding and endorsed and adopted the ministerial advisory report. That report made several recommendations, all of which are practical and pragmatic and all of which would lead us directly to the State provision of a commemorative centre.

The city council had an action plan. When I was on the city council, I chaired the expert group that proposed ensuring a sustainable model for street trading. I am glad the city council has made good progress on that. I invite everybody to visit the street market in Moore Street, particularly over the coming weekends, when it will operate not for six days per week, as is traditional, but for seven. It will be operating on a Sunday.

To get to the crux of this Commencement matter, we still have a blank and a scene of inactivity and neglect at 14-17 Moore Street. The OPW has promised that a design team will commence work, but we have been listening to promises for many months. In July, when the relevant Minister of State came to the House to deal with the last Commencement matter I raised on this subject, he promised that works would commence within weeks and that he would come to Moore Street with me and others to inspect the site and discuss our plans for it. It is with real regret that I have had to raise this Commencement matter today because it was my hope and that of many others that the works would commence and that there would be no need for us to be talking about this here anymore. I had hoped to witness the works proceeding on Moore Street.

I appreciate this matter does not fall under the portfolio or Department of the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, and I appreciate his being here, but I really hope the relevant Minister of State and OPW have sent him here with a positive response and that he will be able to advise the House on a firm date for the commencement of the works so we can anticipate a date for the opening of a State-run 1916 commemorative centre at 14-17 Moore Street.

Deputy Frankie Feighan

I thank the Senator for raising this matter. I am taking it on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, who, unfortunately, cannot be here. He has asked me to send his apologies. I will convey to him the Senator's comments. I am aware that the Senator has raised this issue consistently, has a great interest in it and has been very committed to it. She raised it most recently in July of this year.

The future of the historic buildings at 14–17 Moore Street has been at the centre of a vigorous debate for several years, and a considerable amount of effort has been expended both inside and outside government to reach a consensus on how to proceed. Following the publication of the Moore Street Advisory Group's third and final Securing History report in May 2021, the path ahead was made much clearer. Following extensive consultation, the Government earlier this year adopted a key decision to instruct the OPW to proceed with a project to conserve the houses and create a 1916 commemorative centre, allowing people to visit the site and participate in this important part of our country's history.

As the Minister indicated previously in this Chamber, while the OPW has been curating the site since 2019, its focus up to this point has been on keeping the monument safe and secure until a decision could be made on its future. Following the Government decision earlier this year, the OPW has moved forward substantively on implementing its mandate and has been working on developing a project to meet the vision outlined in the advisory group's report.

As the Minister of State informed the Seanad in July, the OPW has been focused first and foremost on resourcing the project properly, with a professional design team, led by an in-house expert technical team from the OPW, supplemented through the appointment of additional external technical services teams, including project managers, architects, engineers and cost specialists, who will help manage the works on the ground and fully deliver the project. When the Minister of State addressed the matter here in July, it was hoped the OPW would be in a position to conclude the relevant formalities with these professionals within a relatively short space of time, enabling them to begin substantively on the key design preparation work that needs to be done before contractors can be engaged and work started on site. While progress has been made, this schedule has, unfortunately, proven too optimistic, and most of the formal appointments have not yet been concluded.

The delay in formal appointments for the technical team has occurred due to the complexity of ensuring the various parties to the multiple individual contracts concerned - between the OPW on one side and seven separate companies on the other - will be completely clear as to their roles and responsibilities in the process. As a result, this process has taken longer to conclude than anticipated.

I can inform the Senator that progress has been made regarding the design team. The individual technical team members have been identified, a scope-of-service arrangement has been agreed, and terms of service, including the commercial aspects, have been set out.

Looking forward, the OPW considers these matters to be very significantly advanced and will appoint the individual team members as soon as possible. However, the OPW is not in a position at this stage to commit to a specific date, but the matter is being treated as a priority.

I wish to take this opportunity to address another matter that I trust will be of interest to the Senator. It relates to the appointment of a professional design consultant for the interpretation and exhibition element of the project. This is a significant element of the project and will represent a critical part of the design team. This commitment is being tendered publicly, allowing creative teams and companies that specialise in this kind of work to submit proposals for consideration by a joint assessment panel comprising key members of the project steering group. A tender specification for this work has been created and it will be a short-term priority for the OPW - in parallel with appointing the other members of the technical team - to advertise for this speciality service and make an appointment as soon as is feasible.

The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, has informed me of his intention to visit the Moore Street national monument and will ensure every effort will be made to advance works.

Senator Mary Fitzpatrick

I acknowledge the progress made and do not want to be entirely dismissive. Significant appointments of professionals have been made. Seven professional services are to be negotiated with and are to engage in the project. It is important that we get the best and most-expert professionals involved in creating the 1916 commemorative centre. It is important that the centre be the best in its class. When the State invests in and does its best for a project, it does deliver its best. We have many fine examples of this. However, I have to ask the Minister of State to go back to the OPW and express to it that those of us on this side are exceedingly frustrated over the glacial speed. When I say "those of us on this side", I do not mean those of us in this Chamber but the people on Moore Street, the people of our city more generally and the people from all over the country who travel to Moore Street to see the last headquarters of the 1916 Rising. They cannot fathom what is happening. They appreciate that there is debate and that it may have been hard to gain consensus, but we now have consensus and a report with consensus. We have a consensus on having a State-run 1916 commemorative centre that will be the best in its class at 14-17 Moore Street. Those concerned need to get on with it. He who hesitates is lost. At present, the State is lost on this issue. It must accelerate its efforts. I ask the Minister of State to bring that message back to the relevant Minister.

Deputy Frankie Feighan

I thank the Senator for her comments. I will bring her views back to the Minister of State but will also respond in his absence. I recognise that there has been a delay in this matter and I share the Senator's disappointment that the early projections shared with her last July have turned out to be optimistic. However, it needs to be recognised that this is a very complicated undertaking involving a significant financial and technical commitment. Given the importance of the buildings and their status as a national monument, the OPW is focusing on making sure the project succeeds to the best possible extent and addresses the expectations of so many parties who have contributed to this solution. The site at 14–17 Moore Street has been waiting in what I would categorise as an extended limbo – the Senator used the word "glacial" in this regard – for almost six years since 2016.

It has been the focus of much work and discussion ever since. Given this, the OPW was careful to provide precipitous arrangements and took care to address these matters carefully with all professional consultant parties involved before entering a substantial binding legal and financial commitment.

I fully accept the Senator’s position that it is now time to move forward and realise the project as soon as possible, as the OPW was instructed. The Senator will remain committed to this product, as indeed will the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan.

Acting Chairperson (Senator Mary Seery Kearney)

I welcome our visitors to the Gallery. They are very welcome to the Seanad.

Special Educational Needs

Senator Jerry Buttimer

I, too, welcome the students to the Gallery. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, for being here. I appreciate that the matter I raise is not his area of responsibility.

I raise the issue of special school liaison teachers through the prism of the pupils, families and staff in St. Paul’s Special School in Montenotte in Cork. I have been engaging with its principal, Anne Hartnett, as I have been with other schools, on the non-sanctioning of posts of home school liaison officer. These schools have made requests to the Department and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, on the matter. It is important to put in context that these are special schools for a community within a community. No clarity has been given as to why these posts have been denied. Ministers have visited special schools, are fully cognisant of the need and do not disagree with the rationale and need for these posts.

I make my appeal on behalf of all special schools in the context of the real and urgent need for home school liaison officers and teachers. In the budget, we allocated close to 1,800 extra teaching posts. Surely we could make between 180 and 200 of these posts special school liaison teacher positions. This would leave the 108 special schools with 92 posts and only 90 are needed to give the support to the schools. I know the Department of Education has made a change regarding deputy administrative principals and allocating these posts is welcome and a help. However, it falls short of what is required.

Pupils deserve support and parents deserve to be empowered and have a scaffolding of support with them. As I said, special schools are not like typical schools because the pupils come from a range of communities. Some of them can live 50 km away or more. I know the Acting Chair has been very involved in her own area around this particular issue as well.

The child we are trying to assist and support here needs to be better supported. I hope by providing this particular post, we can do that. I look forward to the Minister of State’s response and I appreciate that it is not his area of responsibility. This is not only about Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, status. This is not about DEIS status, which the Minister, Deputy Foley, will refer to in response to parliamentary questions in the other House. I hope we will see common sense in this and ensure this post is allocated and given.

Deputy Frankie Feighan

On behalf of the Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion, I thank the Senator for raising this very important matter. I stress that it is absolutely vital that every child and young person with special educational needs is fully supported in the education sector, whether this be in a mainstream or special class or special school. Significant investment and reforms have been made in order to ensure that this is the case.

The Senator outlined the case of St. Paul's Special School in Cork. A priority for this Government is to ensure that all children have an appropriate school placement and the necessary supports are provided to our schools to cater for the needs of children with special educational needs. This year, the Department will spend in excess of €2 billion, or more than 25% of the Department's budget, on providing additional teaching and care supports for children with special educational needs. This will bring the total number of special education teachers in the mainstream school system to 14,385 in 2022, which is an increase of 48% since 2011 when 10,575 were funded. Additional teachers are also being provided to support students enrolled in new special classes and new special schools for the 2022-23 school year. Provision has been made for 19,169 special needs assistants, SNAs, by the end of 2022, which will represent an increase of 81% since 2011.

For 2023, the special education budget will be substantially increased by more than 10%, meaning that in 2023 the Department will spend more than €2.6 billion on special education. This will provide for an additional 370 special classes, an additional 686 special education teachers and 1,194 additional SNAs. Budget 2023 also provides funding for additional staffing in both the NCSE and the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS. Both of these measures will ensure that our schools and students benefit from additional practical supports from special educational needs organisers, SENOs, NCSE advisers and educational psychologists.

It is important to note that the NCSE has a process in place for reviewing the level of supports allocated to individual schools. Where schools consider they may require additional resources, they can engage directly with the NCSE to seek a review at any time. This review considers the particular needs of the children enrolled in the school.

We have set out the extent of the additional funding being made available to provide more special education teachers, SNAs, NCSE supports and NEPS supports in our schools. Special schools receive significant funding and have been resourced to reflect their particular needs. However, both the Minister and the Department accept there are a range of additional challenges facing our special schools. These schools cater for children and young people with the most complex special educational needs.

The Senator is aware that the home school community liaison scheme comes under the DEIS programme. While special schools are resourced to reflect their particular needs, the scheme has not traditionally been part of that model. However, the Department recognises the importance attached to establishing and fostering positive links between the home and school.

Again, while there are no current plans to extend the home school community liaison scheme to special schools, the Department is actively engaging with the representative body for boards of management in special schools to address some of these additional challenges. This involves considering how additional school management posts, such as a deputy administrative principal, are allocated to special schools to help alleviate the administrative burden on school leaders. Consideration is also being given to addressing significant additional funding challenges that arise for special schools. In addition, the need to support home school liaison between our special schools and parents is also under consideration. The Minister and Department of Education are committed to continuing the engagement to address these issues facing special schools.

Senator Jerry Buttimer

I thank the Minister of State for his response. In the context of the reply, it is disappointing that there are no plans to extend the home school liaison post. The Minister of State with responsibility for this area, Deputy Madigan, has been very proactive in her role, to give her credit. However, there is a real and urgent need in our special schools. As we all know, there are challenging behaviours, different family circumstances and a need for myriad supports to be put in place. This post, while not a panacea, offers a roadmap and pathway to students remaining in and returning to education. I hope the continuing engagement to address the issues will bring a resolution soon. I thank the Minister of State for his response and the Acting Chair for allowing me to speak.

Deputy Frankie Feighan

On behalf of the Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion, I again thank the Senator for raising this issue and providing the opportunity to reassure the House that the Department is committed to ensuring all children can access an education suitable to their needs. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, is pleased to have had the opportunity to visit a large number of special schools and special classes since she was appointed Minister of State with responsibility for special education and inclusion.

She has seen at first hand the excellent work that is done with, for and by students. Of course, there are significant challenges, as the Senator outlined. We all accept that. In particular, all those working in or supporting special schools and special classes see those challenges every day. The Minister of State is committed to continuing to work to ensure those school communities are supported in their vital work.

Senator Buttimer has raised some interesting issues and points. I will take them back to the Minister of State as soon as possible.

Cuireadh an Seanad ar fionraí ar 11.21 a.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 12.03 p.m.

Sitting suspended at 11.21 a.m. and resumed at 12.03 p.m.