Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. In budget 2021, as he knows, we secured an unprecedented investment of €2 billion dedicated to the provision of special education, which is one fifth of the entire education budget. Included in that was provision for approximately 235 speech and language therapy teachers. In addition, we got an extra 1,000 special needs assistants, SNAs, which takes us to an unprecedented total of 18,000 SNAs in the education system. SNAs are critical to assisting children in mainstream classes and, indeed, in special schools and special classes. Ensuring we have enough teaching staff within the school system is something we always need to advocate for on behalf of children with special needs. It is always important that we have dedicated teachers for this sector, as opposed to trying to use other teachers in the system. In my conversations with SNAs, they often tell me that they should not be used for any other care or duty other than looking after children with special needs. That is something for which I fully advocate.

I take this opportunity to mention the expanded summer provision, which offers a significant increase on what was available last year. The eligibility is now extended to 81,000 pupils. For the first time, all 4,000 schools in the country will be in a position to apply for funding to run the summer programme. Last year, for example, it was just primary schools and special schools that could apply. There is an unprecedented allocation of €40 million for the programme, which is double the funding that was given last year. That will go some way to assisting the participation of schools in the project.

See this speech in context