Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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201. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of increasing the number of special needs assistants from 11,330 to 11,830 and to 12,300; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27870/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that I announced yesterday that I had secured Government approval for an additional 610 Special Needs Assistant (SNA) posts which may be made available for allocation to schools to support children with special educational needs with assessed care needs.

From September there will be 11,820 whole time equivalent SNA posts available in schools to support children with special educational needs with assessed care needs. This is the highest level of SNA allocation that we have ever had and builds on the increases of 365 additional SNA posts provided for in last year's budget announcement and the 390 additional SNA posts announced in December 2013. In total there has been an increase of 11.7% in SNA posts available for allocation to schools since this Government came to office.

These extra posts will ensure that the Government's policy of ensuring that every child who is assessed as needing SNA support will receive access to such support. Based on current average SNA salary costs, the full year cost of employing an additional 500 SNAs in schools would equate to approximately €15 million and the cost of employing an additional 970 SNA posts would equate to approximately €29.1 million.