Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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155. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of additional special needs assistants provided for in budget 2016’s new measures, and any additional measures and resources contained within the commitment to facilitate children with disabilities. [40860/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that some €1.37 billion will be spent in support of children with Special Educational Needs this year, which represents approximately 15% of my Department's budget.

This provides for a range of supports and services including additional learning and resource teaching support, Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support, special transport arrangements, building adaptations, enhanced capitation, funding for the purchase of specialised equipment, services of the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS), enhanced levels of capitation in Special schools and Special Classes and additional teacher training.

The policy of my Department is that children with special educational needs should be included where possible and appropriate in mainstream placements with additional supports provided. In circumstances where children with special educational need require more specialised interventions, special school or special class places are also available.

A range of supports have been provided for schools which have enrolled pupils with special educational needs in order to ensure that, wherever a child is enrolled, they will have access to an appropriate education.

We now have a higher level of Resource Teaching and SNA support than ever before.

In July last, I announced that an additional 610 Special Needs Assistant posts are being provided for this year. From September, there are 11,820 whole time equivalent SNA posts available in Primary, Post Primary and Special 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.

I also announced provision for an additional 480 Resource Teachers to take into account increased demand and demographic growth and to ensure that children can continue to have access to additional supports in school.

In addition, the NCSE has established over 150 new Special Classes in the 2015/16 school year, which means there are now over 1,000 special classes attached to mainstream schools catering for children with special educational needs.

This Government's continued investment in education will ensure that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs. We have been resolutely committed to protecting, and in some instances 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.