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

That is why I am a bit surprised. The announcement I made in the budget was to allow the NCSE to make that announcement. In previous years the NCSE did the evaluation and then had to await a Government decision to approve the sanctioning of the money. Now we have sanctioned the money in October for next year, meaning it is in a position to do that.

There is a grievance procedure which to my knowledge is working satisfactorily. In addition a panel system was introduced in 2013. Prior to the introduction of that panel, a substantial number of SNAs, approximately 400, were being made redundant each year because the children for whom they were caring no longer needed those supports in the school and only 10% of them were getting redeployed. Under the panel we have introduced, fewer SNAs are losing their posts - about 54% got new posts and others having gone on the panel opted for redundancy. We have been acting under the existing agreements to meet the issues raised by IMPACT.

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