Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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61. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans for an assessment of the effectiveness of current laws, policies and spending on special needs and disability supports in the education system, with a view to publishing a roadmap to meet the rights of children with special educational needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28374/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that Section 20 (1) (j) of the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act 2004 sets out that one of the functions of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is to advise the Minister for Education and Skills in relation to any matter relating to the education of children and others with disabilities.

In recent years, the NCSE has provided my Department with a number of policy advice papers on:

The Future Role of Special Schools and Classes in Ireland

The Education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in Ireland

The Education of Children with Challenging Behaviour arising from Severe Emotional Behavioural Disorders

Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs in Schools

Delivery for Students with Special Educational Needs: A proposed new model for allocating teaching resources for Students with Special Educational Needs

Details of these reports can be found at .

I have also recently requested the NCSE to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the Special Needs Assistant Scheme.

The policy advice paper 'Supporting Students with Special Educational Needs in Schools' included an assessment of the legislative and administrative practices underpining the provision of special educational needs supports and also the current polices and manner of providing supports for children with special educational needs in schools.

The report also made a number of recommendations aimed at developing a better or more effective alternative to the current resource allocation model.

It is therefore intended to bring into effect many improvements to the provision of special educational needs support, through policy developments across a range of areas, in conjunction with NCSE policy advice.

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. In doing so, I will also take into account the recommendations contained in the NCSE policy advice papers.

In the meantime the provision of supports for children with special educational needs continues to be improved on an ongoing basis.

Funding for special education provision in 2016 will amount to some €1.5 billion, which is equivalent to over 17% of the gross overall current allocation for education and training. It has increased by 10% in the past two years.

We now have the highest level of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support, Resource Teaching allocations and Special Class provision that we have ever had, which will ensure that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs.

I recently announced that from September next 12,900 Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) will be available for allocation to primary and secondary schools, which is 860 more posts, or a 7% increase in the number of posts over the number available last year. In total the number of SNA posts available has increased by almost 22% from 10575 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 5265 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.

The provision which is being made ensures that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs.