Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

It is, therefore, often better in that instance that the SNA move in a managed way out of their care role for that child, even if it is during the course of the school year.

The House must understand that while mainstream teaching posts are allocated at the start of a school year and remain for the full school year, the allocation of special needs assistant posts has never been tied to the start of the school year. This was to assist schools who may not have been able to access the relevant professional reports at the start of the school year or who had new pupils with special educational needs enrolled during the year. Accordingly, the addition or reduction of special needs assistant posts throughout the course of the school year has always been a feature of the SNA scheme. The NCSE has adopted a flexible approach where a school encounters particular transitional difficulties, for example, in the case of students with diminishing care needs where a number of SNAs are leaving. In such cases, it can allow a longer transitional time and I have asked the council to continue this practice and to keep its protocols in this regard under review.

It is important to ensure there is a consistent application of policy in the allocation of special needs supports across the country. That is what is happening at present, and I do not intend to freeze this review. While a small number of schools remain to be reviewed, the NCSE will publish the outcome of the SNA review to date on its website this evening. The overall position is currently as follows: 920 SNA posts were freed up as it was found that the students to whom the posts related had actually left the relevant school; over 1,300 new SNA posts have been sanctioned; and 733 posts were freed up because students had diminished care needs. While the overall number of SNA posts nationally is down 3.5%, this is mainly as a result of schools retaining posts when the child to whom the post related had left the school. There was no change in the level of SNA support in just over 1,500 schools. A total of 579 schools received an increase in their allocation of SNA support, while 832 had their allocations reduced either because the students had left the school or due to the student's development of independent living skills.

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