David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 381: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the budget allocation and expenditure of the special education support service since its establishment in 2003; the number of staff employed in the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47454/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Teacher Education Section of my Department provides for a comprehensive system of continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers in the area of special educational needs. Central to this is the Special Education Support Service (SESS).

Funding in the amount of €330,000 was provided to the SESS for start up costs in 2003/2004. Details of the actual expenditure by the SESS since 2005 (the first year of full service) to date is as follows:

There is a total staff complement of 29 working with the SESS. It should be noted that there was additional funding available to the SESS in 2008 however, due to a lower than anticipated uptake on some of the programmes of CPD and difficulties encountered in recruiting appropriately qualified staff to a newly established SEN Behaviour team, the actual expenditure in 2008 was lower than expected.

My Department is proactive in the development of programmes of CPD that cater for the needs of teachers of pupils with special educational needs. To this end my Department remains committed to providing funding to the SESS to ensure that teachers benefit from CPD that enables them to effect a combined-skills approach to meeting the learning and teaching needs of pupils with special educational needs.

The Deputy may also be interested to note that in 2008 for the first time, my Department funded provision of a Professional Development Programme Post-Graduate Certificate/ Diploma in Special Educational Needs (Autistic Spectrum Disorders) by St. Angela's College, Sligo in collaboration with the SESS.

Furthermore, in addition to the funding available to the SESS in 2008 a further €1.35 Million was spent in 2008 to cater for the provision of post-graduate programmes in the area of Special Educational Needs across 7 academic institutions.