I want to again raise issues relating to special education supports for schools in Wicklow. I previously raised them in the context of Topical Issues and parliamentary questions and I wrote to the Minister of State directly on two occasions. Ashford national school has two special needs assistants, SNAs. One of them is fully allocated to one student. The schools' request for additional support was rejected and its appeal has been postponed. Marino special school in Bray had its SNA review cancelled two days before it was due to take place. They have had no information since then. The Dominican College in Wicklow was due to open an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, classroom this September. It had accepted students on that basis and then the classroom was cancelled. St. Laurence's in Greystones had its SNA review cancelled at short notice. New Court special school is missing nearly half the SNA supports it needs. My feeling is that the National Council for Special Education is moving from one process to another that is due to begin in the next school year. However, that is leaving huge gaps for schools preparing for September. Can the Minister for Education please look into this matter and have it resolved?

I am not sure the Minister is aware that there are 120 primary schoolchildren in Wicklow town and Rathnew who do not have school places for September. I am aware of a number of students in Greystones who also do not have places.

To the Deputy's final point, my Department is engaging with the schools in the area to make sure that every child has a place. This has to happen in every area, particularly where there is a population increase. We are actively engaged in the area. If there is a need to work more closely with the Tusla education support service for schools, and in particular for students, that will happen. My understanding is that there are places available. It is about making sure children can get access to those places.

On special education supports, we have more SNAs than we have ever had before. There are 1,600 more this year. I appreciate that the need is increasing. As a result, we need to make sure that we continue to increase SNA supports and the number of special education teachers and provide places. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and I are engaged in ongoing work in that regard.

Specifically in the context of reviews, there is an option for schools, if they are not happy with the allocations made by the NCSE recently, to apply to the review and appeal system. However, I accept the Deputy's point. We need to get to a position where allocations are made at a particular time in order to allow schools to have an opportunity, well before the summer recess, to make appeals in order that they will have the resources in place for September and will know exactly what they are getting. We also need to make sure that we have a system and a structure in place for the NCSE to be able to conduct reviews that are asked for and for schools to conduct reviews throughout the school year. This would mean that where SNAs are not needed in schools, and we know that is the case, they can be redeployed. We will have a new redeployment scheme coming into place next September. I appreciate that we need to make sure that we continue to increase the number of SNAs and special education teachers because demand is increasing.

That concludes questions on policy or legislation. I join with the party leaders and others in extending our thanks to all of the staff here in Leinster House for the work they do for us in keeping the campus right and keeping all of us safe. I include the Garda in that. I wish everyone well in their work over the next number of weeks.