Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for providing an update on this important issue. Some media commentary has been unfair to the Department and National Council for Special Education given the significant progress that has been made in providing special needs assistants. The Minister of State, Deputy Sean Sherlock, spoke in the House about the remarkable progress that has been made in this regard in the past 13 or 14 years. The number of special needs assistants increased from 300 in 1997 to 10,575 in 2010-11. This was much needed progress.

Having had the opportunity to meet senior officials from the National Council for Special Education, I accept that the processing of applications is not straightforward and takes time. I ask the Minister to ensure every effort is made to finalise the 300 additional appointments and have the relevant special needs assistants in classrooms by the end of the month. I presume that when the first school term concludes, the profile of the classroom does not change much during the rest of the school year. It may not be necessary, therefore, to retain 175 special needs assistants. If there are applicants who meet the relevant criteria, the special needs assistant posts should be approved and the relevant SNAs allocated to the classroom. I do not envisage much change in classroom profile between Christmas and the end of the school year.

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