Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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28. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will improve services for all children with a disability in primary and secondary level schools. [21898/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I recently announced that the NCSE has allocated 6,454 resource teacher posts to schools, to support children with special needs, for September 2015.

This is an increase of 554 posts or 9.4% since September 2014 and will provide more resource teachers than ever before in our schools.

In addition, 11,330 SNA posts are available to the NCSE to allocate, which is also more than has ever previously been available.

A Pilot of the New Model for Allocating Resource Teachers to Schools has been developed and approximately 50 Schools are being invited to participate in this pilot.

Interim arrangements have also been put in place to support pupils with Down syndrome pending the introduction of the new allocation model.

I am therefore both providing additional supports to schools for the coming school year, while also continuing to develop the new resource allocation model.