Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. I do not have the details of the individual case. The model of general allocation is one that was favoured by school bodies and principals when it was originally introduced, giving more flexibility to schools to deal with the numbers of children they may have in respect of additional needs.

I introduced the SNA system back in the late nineties when I was Minister for education and we had no SNAs in mainstream schools. By September, we will have 23,179 SNAs in the country. That is double the number of SNAs that were in our schools ten years ago. This year’s budget provides for about 1,600 additional special needs assistants. There is no cutting back on this. It is also the case that the number of children identifying with additional needs is growing. If the Deputy sends the details, we can forward them to the NCSE and see what it can do in respect of this particular case.

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