Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Mannion and Ms McGrath for their presentations this morning. I welcome, first of all, the significant increase in staffing in this area, namely, 1,000 SNAs and 400 SEN teaching posts. That is a significant improvement on the situation which we had beforehand. Notwithstanding some of the concerns I share with Deputy Ó Laoghaire around the school inclusion model, it is welcome as well that the resources are being put into the schools in order that the schools make the decision about the provision of resources so that resources, particularly the SNA resources, get to the children with needs more quickly. I will go into a few specifics and then I have a few wider questions.

My first question is very specific. How is the hiring going? We are looking for 400 SEN teachers and for 1,000 SNAs. Are we managing to fill those posts?