With regard to the 80 active legal cases involving special educational needs referred to in my previous reply to the Deputy, I would again reiterate that I cannot comment on the details of any individual case. However, I can confirm that of these 80 court cases, 60 relate to Plenary Actions and 20 are by way of Judicial Review. Also, of the 80 cases in question, 52 relate to Primary (including Special Schools), 11 relate to Post Primary and 17 relate to adults. The following table gives a breakdown of the number of cases per year on which legal proceedings were initiated.
Year
|
Plenary
|
1999
|
2
|
2000
|
4
|
2001
|
15
|
2002
|
17
|
2003
|
10
|
2004
|
8
|
2005
|
3
|
2006
|
1
|
Total
|
60
|
Year
|
Judicial Review
|
1997
|
2
|
1998
|
2
|
2000
|
3
|
2001
|
1
|
2002
|
4
|
2005
|
5
|
2006
|
3
|
Total
|
20
|