Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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218. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of special needs assistants who were in schools in counties Longford and Westmeath in each of the years 2008 to 2014. [38493/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that in July last, I secured Government approval for an additional 610 Special Needs Assistant (SNA) posts which were made available for allocation to schools this year to support children with special educational needs with assessed care needs. This 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.

This brings to 11,940, the total number of SNA posts available for allocation to the end of 2015. This is the highest level of SNA allocation that we have ever had and represents an increase of 11.7% in SNA posts available for allocation to schools since this Government came to office.

From the beginning of September, there are 11,820 whole time equivalent SNA posts available in schools to support children with special educational needs with assessed care needs.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.

The National Council for Special Education(NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating SNA support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school.

The NCSE has published details of SNA allocations for schools for September 2015 on its website, which are available to view on a per county basis, including for counties Longford and Westmeath. Details of SNA allocations from 2012 to 2014 are also available on the NCSE website. I will arrange for the Deputy's request for information for earlier years to be forwarded to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply.