Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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261. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is considering providing non-teaching special educational needs co-ordinators; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7791/23]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for the question and would like to advise the following.

Enabling children with special educational needs (SEN) to receive an education appropriate to their needs is a priority for this Government.

It is also a key priority for me as Minister for Special Education & Inclusion, for my Department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

For 2023, the spend by my Department on special education will be substantially increased by over 10% on last year, meaning that for 2023 my Department will spend over €2.6 billion providing supports to children and young people with special educational needs and their schools.

This level of educational funding and support is unprecedented and represents in excess of 27% of the Department’s total allocation for 2023.

This includes funding to support children with SEN in mainstream classes; funding for new special classes and new special school places; additional special educational teachers and special needs assistants.

In 2023 the number of teaching and SNA posts in our schools will increase with an additional 686 teachers and a further 1,194 special needs assistants in our schools next year.

For the first time ever we will have over 19,000 teachers working in the area of special education and over 20,000 Special needs assistants. Together we have almost 40,000 qualified and committed people in our schools who are focused wholly and exclusively on supporting children with special educational needs.

Department Circular letters 0013/2017 and 0014/2017 advised schools that co-ordination of provision for students with special educational needs is important and that they should use a portion of their Special Education Teaching (SET) hours for co-ordination of activities.

My Department recognises that the extent of co-ordination activities will depend on the size of the school and the number of students with identified needs. For example, in larger schools with a considerable number of students with identified needs, this may mean a SET is deployed on a full time basis as a special education needs co-ordinator. Schools may also use available management structures, e.g. Assistant Principal 1 or Assistant Principal 2 posts, to ensure effective co-ordination of special educational activities.

My Department’s Inspectorate are due to undertake a focused review of how schools are co-ordinating their provision for students with special educational needs within their schools at present and this review should be informative in terms of examining this issue.