Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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220. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the 1,000 special needs assistant positions announced in budget 2020 are additional to the 900 announced in 2019; the number of the 900 positions that have been filled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42050/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Budget 2019 provided for 950 additional SNA posts. To date over 900 of these posts have been allocated with the remainder expected to be allocated by the end of the year.

By the end of this year, there will be up to 15,950 SNAs working in our schools, an increase of over 51% since 2011.

Budget 2020 has provided for 1,064 additional SNAs posts which will bring the total number of SNA posts in schools to over 17,000 in 2020.