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

I thank the Deputy again for his contribution. What is happening here is that the amount of resource for special education is increasing, but it is shifting from primary to secondary. That is the right thing to do because that is where the population is moving. As I mentioned previously, in the county of Galway alone, there will be 300 fewer children in primary school next year and ten fewer classes and, of course, that means fewer teachers. Logically, it would mean that. However, we are not reducing the number of teachers. We are moving that resource to follow the children into the post-primary area, and that is the right thing to do.

In terms of how the allocation is weighted, the baseline number of enrolments for the size of schools is weighted at 25%. The weighting in favour of boys has been got rid of because that was deemed to be inappropriate in a modern world. Disadvantage remains a criterion, and so do complex needs, literacy and numeracy. There has been some suggestion that complex needs are not taken into account anymore. That is incorrect. We are not willing to use the HSE data for complex needs, however. We will use the education data, but we are not willing to use the HSE data for complex needs anymore because we do not believe it is reliable.

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