Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I stress that my ambition and that of the Minister of State - as the Deputy has said, we are working very closely together in the area of special education - is to make sure that every child has a school place, and when they are in school in a place that is appropriate to them, that they have the resources and the supports that they need, be it in mainstream, a special class or a special school. Absolutely central to that is making sure we have enough special education teachers supporting our mainstream teachers as well as SNAs, who are providing crucial support in the classrooms.

As the Deputy will be aware, the number of SNAs and the allocations have increased significantly over the past number of years. The funding we are discussing today will provide for an additional 1,600 SNAs to the schools. That is to reflect the need that is there, but also to make sure that where children, such as the young man the Deputy mentioned, need those resources, they are available to them.

What I am trying to do at present is, first, make sure that the allocations for SNAs happen earlier than they currently do. We know the times when school teachers are being allocated. We know that then gives a better length of time for schools to be able to appeal and that can be done within the school year so that we are not coming into the summer period not knowing what teachers are going where. My ambition, and that of the Minister of State, is that for next year we will be able to allocate our SNAs at the same time as we are allocating our teachers, which is much earlier in the year. That would allow us then to undertake any reviews where schools have concerns if they have not been provided with allocations that they feel they should get or if they want to appeal a particular decision.

Obviously, in the past couple of weeks, the NCSE has made allocations. Officials have written out to all of the schools and given them their allocation for this coming year.

Without knowing the exact detail of the school, I suggest that the school, if it is not happy with the allocation that it has received, should appeal. Such appeals are happening now and over the next coming weeks and into the summer.

My ambition, as I said, though it is not okay that we are doing reviews during the summer when parents are planning for the new term, is to bring that forward next year. We are working on that already, but for any school that feels its allocation is not appropriate, it can appeal.

I stress again, though, that in recent years we have changed the model and that it is not specific to the individual child. The NCSE reviews the school on a whole-of-school basis and considers all of the needs within the school and then makes the recommendation and the allocation based on the whole-of-school need. Without knowing the individual case, but fully appreciating what the Deputy outlined and the clear need the child has, it is open to a school to submit those reviews.

My objective is to make sure that we have the funding and that we have the resources in place. The structures are really important so that parents know much earlier than they do now what SNAs will be allocated to the schools and that schools and children know this, and if there needs to be an appeal, that it is heard much earlier than it is currently. I appreciate that this time of the year is not the best time to be saying we are having appeals but that will change next year. We are working hard to make sure that is the case.