Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Contrary to the Deputy's public expressions in recent days, I can confirm that there has been no reduction to the overall number of SNA posts for the coming school year.

This provision remains at 10,575 posts - the exact same amount as last year. Let me be very clear - children who qualify for access to SNA support for the coming school year will receive access to this support on precisely the same criteria as they did last year. There has been no change in the method or criteria on which SNAs are allocated. As a result, there is no cut and no changed policy decision on SNA allocations for me to reverse as Minister for Education and Skills.

It is important to note however, that the level of SNAs required to support children with special educational needs changes from year to year in line with the enrolment of different children with different care needs. The care needs of individual children can also change from year to year. The NCSE takes these factors into account when allocating SNAs to schools. It is therefore not accurate to say a change in a school's SNA allocation has anything to do with budget cutbacks or policy changes.

In June 2012 the NCSE reported that the number of children requiring support for the 2012-13 school year was in the order of 20,000 and the most up-to-date current figures show that for December 2012, there were 21,972 accessing SNA support. This is the 10% increase being cited by Deputy McConalogue but the education system seems to have operated perfectly well and has coped with these demands over the past six months.

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Indeed, the NCSE has advised me that while it has had to work within the cap introduced by the previous Government in 2010 for three years, it has always had surplus capacity at the end of each academic year. I am confident that the system will be sufficiently resourced in order to be able to meet the demands placed upon it in the coming school year.

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