Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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189. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills in view of the return to stability in the economy, her plans to abolish the cap on special needs assistants; her future plans to allocate resources on the basis of need and not budgetary limitations as per the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39527/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that my Government committed, as part of the budget announcements which were made on Tuesday of this week, to providing 480 extra new Resource Teachers and 365 new Special Needs Assistant posts to support children with special educational needs in schools in 2015.

This is in addition to 6,225 Resource Teaching posts which are currently available to the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to allocate to schools for the 2014/15 school year, which in itself is in itself an increase of 480 posts on the preceding year, and 960 posts more than were available for allocation to schools by the NCSE in the 2012/13 school year.

With regard to Special Needs Assistants (SNAs), the increase of 365 posts proposed for next year is also additional to the increase of 390 posts which this Government announced in December 2013, which had raised the previous cap from 10,575 available posts to 10,965 posts.

This Government has been resolutely committed to protecting, and in some instances increasing, the level of investment being made to support children with special educational needs at a time when there has been a requirement to make expenditure reductions across a range of areas. It is an area of spending which has been prioritised above most other areas by this Government, despite the enormous pressures on all areas of public spending.

The increases which have already been provided, and which are being proposed for next year, will ensure that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs, in accordance with the principles of inclusiveness which are set out in the Education for People with Special Needs Act 2004.