Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I understand the concern the Deputy expressed. I have had it expressed to me by parents in my constituency and around the country, and by many of the Fine Gael and Labour backbench Deputies. I hope the NCSE will be able to respond to the kind of comment Deputy Crowe and others have made in this regard.

The value for money report is a revealing document and should be read carefully by every Deputy dealing with parents who are in this area and who are looking for special needs assistants for their child. We are in a situation where we must cap the numbers. They have grown by approximately 1,000% in the past ten years to the current figure. There are 60,000 teachers in the system and just in excess of 10,000 special needs assistants, SNAs. Now, we must examine how best to deploy this capacity of SNAs. This is something I will continue to keep under review.

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