Ireland’s Minister for Education and Youth, Helen McEntee, has annnounced investment in special education and school places as part of a €7.55bn funding pot agreed for 2026-2030.

Announcing the capital, which will pay for new schools and upgrades to existing facilities, she said: “I have set a vision to deliver a world-class education service which breaks down barriers and ensures that every child can achieve their full potential.

“The investment of €7.55bn in capital funding will ensure that we can deliver new special schools and upgrade existing ones.

“We will provide a record 14,000 school places in special classes and special schools and we will continue to prioritise the delivery of extra spaces in our mainstream schools through the construction of new schools and extensions.

“Maintenance of the school estate is also an essential element and I intend to ensure that the minor works grant is paid to schools each year.”

She added that she was developing an implementation plan which will be published in the Autumn.”

Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion, Michael Moynihan, said: “Along with my colleague Minister McEntee, I am committed to ensuring that every child has a school place that meets their needs.

“I am particularly conscious of supporting children with additional needs and the NDP funding allocation announced this week will help us to deliver for these children in an integrated and inclusive manner.”

The money will:

• Facilitate the completion of circa 300 school building projects currently in construction to deliver over 22,300 school places in new and modernised accommodation across primary, post-primary and special schools. Most of these projects are expected to be completed over the course of 2026-2027
• Place a strong emphasis on supporting children with special educational needs in relation to the annual requirements for special classes and places in special schools through continuing to maximise and repurpose existing capacity as much as possible and through the provision of modular accommodation where determined necessary by the department. It is envisaged that this will involve the provision of circa 14,000 school places in special classes and special schools over the course of the 2026-2030 period to meet necessary annual requirements
• Maximise the capacity of the existing school estate as much as possible in the first instance and provide necessary additional capacity through targeted and prioritised project rollout over the course of 2026-2030 period to meet the most-urgent and prioritised needs