Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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274. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will confirm with reference to the newly established “advisor roles”, how many vacancies have been advertised and how many posts have been filled; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25690/23]

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

Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this Government.

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 on special education.

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

The Department of Education has long provided a range of supports for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, either in mainstream classes, 24 special classes or through the 2 established schools for Deaf children.

The Irish Sign Language (ISL) Tuition Scheme provides funding for a weekly tuition service. Tutors visit the home of a deaf or hard of hearing pre-school child or school-going pupil to provide training in ISL for the child, their siblings, their grandparent(s) and parents or guardian.

There is longstanding existing provision in place, which provides a dedicated special needs assistant with ISL competency to support students in mainstream settings access to the curriculum and engage in school activities.

On 14th November 2022 a new enhanced scheme of ISL provision was announced.

I would like to advise the Deputy that the NCSE undertook an initial advertising campaign for the ISL Advisor role in the 2022 in the south of the country and no suitable candidate was appointed following the campaign.

A national advertising campaign will commence shortly (following the conclusion of the ISL-SCS campaign) by the NCSE for the role of ISL Advisor on a nationwide basis.