David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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64. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of special needs assistants in each school in Waterford city and county for each of the years 2014 to 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10912/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that Special Needs Assistants (Ss) are allocated to mainstream Primary, Post Primary schools and to Special Schools to assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs.  Such support is provided in order to facilitate the attendance of those pupils at school and also to minimise disruption to class or teaching time for the pupils concerned, or for their peers, and with a view to developing their independent living skills. 

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including SNA support.  The NCSE allocates SNA support to schools in accordance with the criteria set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014, which is available on my Department's website at www.education.ie. 

As part the Budget announcements, I announced that an additional 115 SNA posts at an annual cost of €3.75m will be provided for allocation from January to June 2017, bringing the total number of SNAs available for allocation to schools to 13,015. This represents an increase of 23% over the numbers allocated in 2011.  This is a higher level of SNA support than ever before, which ensures that children with special educational needs can continue to participate in education and be supported in a manner appropriate to their needs. 

The NCSE has published details of the SNA allocations for all schools which are available to view on a per county basis, including for Waterford City and County.  Details of the SNA allocations for Waterford from 2014 to 2016 can be accessed on the NCSE website at www.ncse.ie or by using the following link http://ncse.ie/statistics.