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

I can assure the Deputy that the Minister for Finance is one of the strongest supporters of investment in special education needs, in respect of which provision has increased since 2011. Even in the most difficult times, in 2011 22,000 children were provided with SNA support. SNA provision now stands at 34,000, which means an additional 12,000 children are now in receipt of SNA support. Also, with the agreement of the Minister for Finance, into the future the provision of SNAs will be provided for in the Estimates such that schools will no longer have to wait until late in the year for know their allocations. We have already made provision for the appointment of SNAs for September 2018 in this year's budget. This is the first time this has been done and this has been facilitated by the Minister for Finance. In response to the Deputy's question, we will be in a position to allow parents and schools know earlier of their allocations.

A review of this scheme is really important. We did a similar review in respect of resource teaching and it resulted in the development of a model that I believe is much better than the previous model.

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