Ms Mary Cregg:

That is correct. The €150 million of expenditure on DEIS across 884 schools will increase €180 million. This will enable the expansion of DEIS to additional schools. Some work is being done regarding the model and the communication of the model but what we have tried to do is examine, and this was outlined as part of the original DEIS plan, how we identify those students who are most at risk. What we are trying to do with DEIS is to make sure that where there are high concentrations of students from backgrounds of educational disadvantage, we encompass them within the DEIS model. Since we record Traveller ethnicity in schools, we will, in time, be able to show how much of the DEIS funding and how the DEIS model are targeting Traveller students. We know that at the moment, about 50% of Travellers attend DEIS schools. We would be able to specify that but the DEIS model involves looking at where there are high concentrations of people within an individual school.

A reference was made to 2011 and changes in the way resources were allocated within the Department. There were changes in how resources were allocated so resources were subsumed into the overall mainstream allocation along with the changes to segregated Traveller education overall. Since 2011, there have been significant increases in the assistance put in place within the system. In September 2021, 17,846 special needs assistant posts were in place with an additional 158 provided by the end of December 2021. This will result in over 18,000 special needs assistants. Details of €9.2 billion in funding were announced in budget 2022. This represents an increase of 81% in the number of special needs assistants provided since 2011 when there were only 10,575 in the system.

Budget 2022 also provided for an additional 145 special education teachers, bringing total provision to 13,765. This represents an overall increase of 40% in the total number of special education teachers allocated since 2011 at a time when there were only 9,740 teachers in the system. An additional 980 posts are provided for in budget 2022, of which 620 will provide additional support for children in mainstream schools.

It is important to look at this in the context of how supports were allocated within the system. Rather than taking things away, we have incorporated the supports that were available within the system into the mainstream system. We have also allowed schools the flexibility and autonomy regarding special education teachers to designate those teachers to those students deemed to need the support most. I will allow Mr. Doody to expand on that.