Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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491. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to review a matter concerning an SET post at a school (details supplied). [16886/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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This government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs.

By the end of the year there will be over 20,800 special educational teachers and 23,400 SNAs in our mainstream classes, special classes and special schools. This will mean we will have over 44,000 teachers and SNAs working in our education system committed to supporting and nurturing children with special educational needs, enabling them to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.

Allocations of special education teaching (SET) allocations for the next school year have recently been provided to schools. I can confirm that there has been no change to the SET allocation for the school in question.

The allocation for the present school year 2024/25 is 22.5 SET hours per week and the school were advised in early February that their allocation for the 2025/26 school year would remain unchanged despite a reduction in enrolments in the school.

The SET allocation model is a standardised allocation model that provides schools with additional teaching hours to support the teaching needs of students in mainstream classes. For the 2025/26 school year close to 15,000 special education teachers have been allocated to schools to support children and young people.

When the model was introduced, it replaced a diagnosis led model with one based on need. This ensures the allocation supports all children that require a level of additional teaching support as identified through the Continuum of Support framework.

The allocation model uses a variety of statistical data to complete allocations. This data includes, enrolment data, data on educational needs profiles (literacy and numeracy) and data on educational disadvantage. This data is sourced from within the education sector to ensure it is validated and assured. The only external data used is the Pobal HP Deprivation Index which is used by Irish government departments for identification of disadvantage.

The 2025/26 school year will see almost 86% of schools either increase their allocation of hours or retain their previous allocation. Of schools who will see a reduction this is driven by demographic change in the geographic area and a reduction of enrolments in the school. The vast majority of these schools will see a reduction of under five hours.

However, unique circumstances may arise in schools that may be difficult to reflect in a standardised method. Therefore, any school who has any concerns on their allocation can engage with the NCSE. The NCSE will provide support to schools as required and will examine if the allocation is sufficient to meet the identified needs of all children and young people enrolled.

Where the NCSE identifies the need for additional resources, my department will immediately approve the identified increase so that it is available to the school ahead of the 2025/26 school year.

My department and the NCSE are committed to delivering an education system that is of the highest quality and where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential.