Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We will all agree that the provision of SNAs for children with special educational needs is essential. We want all children to be able to avail themselves fully of the educational opportunities that are made available to them in our schools. The Government is absolutely committed to that. We have shown proof of that in recent years. There are now approximately 13,000 SNAs. There are more SNAs than gardaí, for example. In addition, almost 20% of the education budget is spent on special education. That is good evidence of the Government's commitment. It is putting manpower and money behind its commitment.

The Cabinet discussed this matter this morning and made two decisions. The first was to allocate an additional 975 SNAs for September. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, will be detailing that announcement in the next day or two. It is July so people will know well before September what allocation they are going to get. The first decision was to allocate an additional 975 SNAs. The second was that we would not decide in the same way again in that we are not going to have this process we have had for a number of years now, whereby decisions on the number of SNAs are made relatively late in the year and into the summer. The first decision was to have 975 additional SNAs allocated for the forthcoming school year. The second decision was that we would make this part of the normal Estimates process so we will know long in advance what the allocation for 2018 will be, exactly for the reason the Deputy outlined, namely, the fact that people should not have to wait until July to find out what is available in September.

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