Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is always difficult to estimate exactly what the needs will be. The National Council for Special Education will give an indication early in the year as to what it thinks they will be. As members will understand, as children are enrolled in schools and their needs identified, further applications are made through SENOs. It is difficult to predict in advance, therefore, what moneys will be needed. Members will see from the figures - it also happened in previous years - that last year an additional number of SNAs were announced later in the year. It happens consistently as the year goes on, coming up to September, that one finds that one needs more than anticipated. Everybody here wants to ensure that where a child is in need of SNA support, he or she will receive it. We estimate as well as we can in advance what the needs will be, but the experience in recent years has been that they have turned out to be greater than anticipated. It is hard to answer Deputy Charlie McConalogue's original question because there are more children who are in need of support and we can all understand why.