Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue because it is very important. I assure the Deputy we are recruiting extra people to NEPS and it is within our provision. As part of the programme for Government we have committed to increasing the NEPS service by 25%. This year in the budget we have made provision for 900 additional resource teachers. This is specifically designed to reform the system so there will not be the same extensive reliance on the assessments to which the Deputy rightly describes as often having arbitrary access. The current system is highly dependent on these assessments and we will move away from them in a new model developed by Eamon Stack and the NCSE. The advantage of this model is that it will give schools a guarantee of the type of support they will get, based on the individual needs of the children. They will not have to rely on psychological assessments and will have other data to use to provide this allocation.

This is a very progressive move, which will free up the services of NEPS to provide the type of whole school support for which it was intended. It was not intended to do assessments only: it was intended to support schools in their ability to deliver to children with special educational needs. I am proud that even in the recent very difficult years we got a 46% increase in the number of resource teachers for children with special needs and a 22% increase in the number of special needs assistants. This is a real investment and commitment by the Government to try to support these children. The new model, which frees up the NEPS resources to do more holistic support for schools, which will see an investment over the coming years in more NEPS staff, will be a win win, with a better outcome for those children who depend on the services. It is an exciting programme and I am very glad to have been able to get the funding this year to commit to this roll-out, which will make a difference to the type of experience the Deputy had in her school in the past.

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