Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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135. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to her speech at the IMPACT conference in County Galway in September 2015, her plans to improve the working conditions and salaries of special needs assistants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33979/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I am pleased to inform the Deputy that my Department received approval for an additional 610 SNA posts from September 2015. These are additional to the 220 posts for 2015 already provided for, and reflect this Government's commitment to ensure that every child with an assessed need has access to a SNA. The overall result is that there are now 11,820 whole-time SNA posts available, an 11.7% increase since this Government came to office.

My Department has also issued a circular regarding the employment of SNAs. I have included a link to this for the benefit of the Deputy. This Circular details the supplementary assignment arrangements for SNAs and also outlines that where a school/ETB has an additional allocation of SNA hours, then that additional allocation of hours must be offered to any existing part-time SNAs in that employment.

This circular gives SNAs greater stability and a better chance of a full-hours contract thus going a long way to address concerns about casualisation that have arisen within the profession and which I addressed at the IMPACT education sector conference last Easter, in Galway.

Link toCircular: