Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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564. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will intervene in the staffing appeal case lodged by a school in County Clare (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17559/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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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.

The school in question were advised in February of their SET Allocation for the 2025/26 school year which is 110 SET hours per week or 4 fulltime teachers and 10 part-time hours. This was a reduction of 2.5hrs (approx. 2%) and directly relates to a reduction of over 10.5% in enrolments in the school.

The NCSE have confirmed that the school have not submitted an application for review of their SET Allocation. In addition, the school has 8.5 SNA's for mainstream and special class support.

If a school feels that it has insufficient special education resources to support those pupils with an identified special education need based on the Continuum of Support framework they should contact their local special education needs organiser (SENO) to discuss the matter.

In addition, the NCSE can provide advisor support to the school in help them in the deployment of their SET resources. The school can request this support directly through the NCSE portal.

The appeal mentioned in your question does not relate to special education resources but to mainstream teacher allocations and allocations have advised that the school have been communicated with on the outcome of the appeals board.

The key factor for determining the level of mainstream teaching posts resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September.

The staffing process contains an appeals mechanism for schools to submit a staffing appeal under certain criteria to an independent Primary Staffing Appeals Board. The school referred to submitted an appeal to the March meeting of the Appeals Board. The Board deemed the appeal ineligible as the grounds of the appeal did not meet the criteria set out in Circular 0011/2025. The Appeals Board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.