Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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430. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of resource teachers and special needs assistants who will be asked to transfer to new schools, or will lose their positions, when the National Council for Special Education reconfigures special education needs resource hours; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6670/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Deputy will be aware that last week I announced that I am not proposing to change the way teachers are allocated to schools for children with Special Educational Needs for the coming school year.

Resource Teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) will continue to be allocated to schools by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), in accordance with my Departments existing criteria for the coming school year,taking into account the children's assessed special educational needs.

The number of resource teachers and SNAs which will be allocate to schools for the coming year will be dependent on the number of valid applications received from schools.

However, it should be noted that it is not intended to reduce the overall number of resource teachers or SNAs which will be allocated to schools.

365 new Special Needs Assistant (SNA) posts and 480 new resource teaching posts have been provided to support children with special educational needs in schools in 2015, bringing the total number of SNAs available for allocation in 2015 to 11,330 posts and the total number of resource teaching posts to 6,705. Over 11,000 resource and learning support teaching posts are now available.

This is the highest level of SNA and resource teaching allocations that we have ever had, and will ensure that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs.

This Government has been resolutely committed to protecting, and where possible, 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.