Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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113. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing the number of resource teaching hours to children with special needs by 15%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12155/16]

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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154. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing the number of resource teaching hours to children with special needs by 15%; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 113 and 154 together.

I wish to advise the Deputy that spending on provision for children with Special Educational Needs has been prioritised in recent years, despite the enormous pressures on all public spending.

Funding for special education provision in 2016 will amount to some €1.4 billion, which is equivalent to approximately 17% of the gross overall current allocation for education and training. It has increased by 10% in the past two years.

This funding provides for a range of supports and services, including additional learning and resource teaching support.

There are currently over 11,800 Learning Support and Resource Teacher posts in mainstream primary and post primary schools, providing additional teaching support to pupils with special educational needs.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has allocated 6,832 Resource Teaching posts to mainstream schools this year, which is an increase of 29% over the numbers allocated since 2011, which was 5265 posts.

The additional cost of increasing the existing allocation rate by an additional 15%, based on the existing NCSE resource teaching allocation of 6832 posts, would be €72.M per full year, based on the current allocation levels. This could be greater in further years, or in future, if the demand of allocation increases.

A total of 7452 resource teaching posts is available to the NCSE to allocate to schools for the coming 2016/17 school year, which is an increase of over 600 posts on the current years allocation, and an increase of 41% over the numbers allocated since 2011, which was 5265 posts.

The Deputy will be aware that the NCSE has a statutory role under the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act to provide me with policy advice in relation to matters concerning the education of persons with special educational needs.

The NCSE has proposed a new resource teaching allocation model for schools and a pilot of the model is taking place across a number of schools in advance of implementation in the school system generally.

The pilot has been developed in order to test the model and to allow for the practical effect of the application of the new model in the 47 pilot schools to be evaluated.

A review of the pilot has now commenced. This will also allow us to take into account the learning experiences of schools, principals, pupils and the views of parents over the course of the pilot.

On conclusion of the review a decision will be taken on the timeframe for the full implementation of the proposed new allocation model.

I do not therefore, intend to review the existing allocation system, pending the conclusion of this review.

As committed to in the Programme for a Partnership Government, I also plan to examine the adequacy of the present policies and provision, and their scope for improvement, particularly in relation to speech and language difficulties and early intervention.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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114. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of extending funding supports for persons with disabilities in higher education to part-time students; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12156/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Supports provided by my Department for students with disabilities in higher education include the Student Grant Scheme, the Free Fees Scheme, the Student Assistance Fund and the Fund for Students with Disabilities.

The cost of funding undergraduate and post-graduate part-time students with disabilities for one academic year has been estimated at €5.67m. The AHEAD survey of 2014/15 identified the percentage of part-time students with disabilities to be circa 1% for Post Graduates and 1.5% for Undergraduates. This percentage figure has been applied to the latest HEA enrolment data for part-time students (2014/15 academic year) to estimate the cost.

The HEA estimate that it would cost an additional €172,000 per year to extend the Fund for Students with Disabilities (FSD) to students participating part-time in higher education.