Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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58. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on a recent survey of special needs assistants which indicated that they require and need more training for their roles. [22431/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The results of the FÓRSA survey to which the Deputy has referred were not submitted directly to my Department and, as such, I have not had sufficient opportunity to fully examine the survey results. I acknowledge that there are many Special Needs Assistants working in our school communities holding additional, and in many cases, much higher levels of qualifications than the minimum qualifications required.

In 2016 the National Council for Special Education was requested to lead a comprehensive review of the Special Needs Assistant Scheme to identify and recommend how, in the future, additional care needs of students, over and above those needs that could be reasonably expected to be managed by teaching staff, should be met and to identify and recommend the most appropriate form of support options to provide better outcomes for students with Special Educational Needs who have additional care needs having regard to the significant amount of State investment in this area.

The NCSE has recently submitted their report to me and the findings and conclusions of that report are now under consideration. I understand that, in preparing their report the NCSE consulted with FÓRSA and may have considered the findings of the survey.

In planning for the implementation of the NCSE's recommendations, full consideration will be given to any recommendations relating to the training and qualification needs of SNAs for the future.