Report into shortage of special education places to be published within week, says minister

Hildegarde Naughton makes first appearance as education minister at the Oireachtas education committee

Education Minister Hildegarde Naughton asked the department to respond to the recommendations proposed by parents and patrons. File picture: Sam Boal/Collins

A long-awaited report examining a shortage of appropriate special education places in Dublin 15 is expected to be published “within a week or so”, the education minister has pledged.

Hildegarde Naughton established the Dublin 15 taskforce in late 2024 when she was special education minister. It followed campaigning from families in the area affected by the shortfall in places for their children. 

It officially submitted its recommendations last summer, but the report has not yet been published by the Department of Education. 

Making her first appearance as education minister at the Oireachtas education committee on Wednesday evening, Ms Naughton said she was “critically aware of the importance” of the work of the group.

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger said the taskforce was established thanks to the work of a grassroots movement of parents demanding school places for their children in the area.

“They spent a long time putting together recommendations, and they handed them over last July. Why has that report not been published,” she asked.

“I've raised it four times in the Dáil: I've had ‘urgently’, I've had ‘imminently’, and I've had ‘soon’,” she said.

"Can you give us a date and then just do it? Because this is an insult to the people of Dublin 15, but also to everybody looking at what special education needs."

Ms Naughton said: “It will be published very shortly, within, I say, days — a week or so.” 

She added that she has asked the department to respond to the recommendations proposed by parents and patrons.

Special education minister Michael Moynihan will also be meeting with the group before it is published, she added.

“There will be feedback in relation to the progress on those recommendations to date that will be published as well.”