Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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309. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of special education needs organisers yearly by county in each of the years 2012 to 2016 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22741/16]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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310. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools with special needs assistants organised by special education needs organisers yearly by county in each of the years 2012 to 2016 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22742/16]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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311. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to restore the number of special education needs organisers to 2009 levels; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22743/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 309 to 311, inclusive, together.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of Special Needs Organisers (SENOs), for fulfilling the functions of the Council within a designated area in relation to the identification of and delivery and co-ordination of education services to children with disabilities.

The Council employs SENOs to provide a nationwide system of local services. Locally based SENOs consult widely with parents/guardians, teachers, health care professionals, school authorities, HSE and other relevant government agencies.

There are currently 80 employees in the SENO grades in the NCSE. These include 1 Senior SENO Manager, 9 Senior SENOs and 69 SENOs.

I have arranged for NCSE to reply directly to the Deputy in relation to information requested relating to the number of SENOs by county. The number of schools with SNAs organized by SENOs is available on the NCSEs website at www.NCSE.ie. The number of SENO posts from 2012 to 2016 is included in the attached document.

Since 2014, the number of SENO posts have increased from 67 to 69 while the NCSE's SENO management structure was strengthened in 2014, with the creation of a new professional post of Senior SENO Manager to directly manage the SENO grades. The NCSE are currently in the process of filling a SENO position which will increase the total number of SENO posts to 81 in 2016.

The Deputy may be aware that in 2015, the establishment of a new Inclusion Support Service within the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) was announced to assist schools in supporting children with special education needs.

The service will include the Special Education Support Service (SESS), the National Behaviour Support Service (NBSS) and the Visiting Teacher Service for children who are deaf/hard of hearing and for children who are blind/visually impaired (VTHVI service).

This change will mean that schools will receive a better and more integrated service from this new Inclusion Support Service.

I can advise that work is ongoing to transfer these services to the NCSE, who are currently recruiting, through the Public Appointments Service, a new Head of Service and Deputy Head of Service for the Visiting Teacher Service for young children and students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing and to those who are Blind/Visually Impaired, their families and schools.

It is intended that the Inclusion Support Service will be operational before the end of the year. It is also intended, however, that the existing services will continue as normal as the new arrangements are put in place, with as little disruption as possible to service users, as progress is made to transfer these services to the NCSE.

My Department is currently in discussions with the NCSE relating to overall staffing requirements including SENO posts.

This Government is fully committed to ensuring that children with Special Educational Needs are fully and appropriately supported while they attend school.

I recently announced that from September next 12,900 Special Needs Assistants (SNAs), at a total gross annual cost of €425 million will be available for allocation to primary and secondary schools. This is 860 more posts, or a 7% increase, in the number of posts over which were available last year. In total the number of SNA posts available has increased by almost 22% from 10,575 posts available in 2011.

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.

In May of this year the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocated 7,015 Resource Teaching posts to mainstream schools for September 2016, which is an increase of approximately 9% over the number allocated at September 2015.

In total, 7,452 Resource Teacher posts will be available for allocation to schools for 2016/17, which represents an increase of 41% from 5,265 posts available in 2011.

In addition, approximately 150 new Special Classes will be opened for the 2016/17 school year, which means there will be over 1,150 special classes in place, compared to 548 special classes in 2011. Of these 1153 classes, there will be 237 post primary, 525 primary and 127 Early Intervention classes for children with autism, in mainstream schools.

The number of SENOS in 2012-2015 is set out in NCSEannual reports.