Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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95. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an update on the actions being taken to ensure sufficient SNA allocation for a school (details supplied), following the SENO's recommendation to increase the allocation despite the quota being reached. [17718/25]

Paula Butterly (Louth, Fine Gael)
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96. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to respond to correspondence (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17720/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 95 and 96 together.

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.

As your question relates to supports for a specific school, my department will ask the NCSE to provide a direct reply.

By the end of the year there will be over 20,800 special educational teachers and 23,400 special needs assistants (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 posts for the next school year have recently been provided to schools and SNA allocations will be confirmed by the NCSE to schools in the coming weeks. The NCSE also publish SET and SNA allocations on their website: www.ncse.ie/set-hours-and-sna-allocations.

SNAs are allocated to schools as a school-based resource. Principals/board of managements deploy SNAs within schools to meet the care support requirements of the children enrolled whom SNA support has been allocated. This provides schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.

If a school feels like it has insufficient SNA support to meet the needs of its students an application can be submitted to the NCSE requesting a review of its allocation. Detailed information on the NCSE's SNA review process is published on the NCSE's website. ncse.ie/sna-review-mainstream. Each case is individually assessed and is based on the student profile of each school.

Some review requests can be concluded as an office-based exercise, whilst others require a school to be visited in order to observe the current deployment of SNA support in the school setting.

The timeframe for concluding a review can vary depending on the school context or the nature of the information provided.

Following the outcome of the review, the NCSE can make a local special educational needs officer (SENO) available to the school to discuss their current deployment of SNA supports in the school and to put these supports to the best advantage of the students. NCSE in-school support is also available to schools to offer further guidance and support.

The NCSE continue to prioritise the full allocation of the additional 1,600 SNA posts provided in Budget 2025 to schools to ensure that those children with the highest level of need get the highest level of support.

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.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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97. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills for an updated list of the number of special schools, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17721/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Please find requested information at the following link:

Please note that data is complied from the preliminary data for 2024-25 which can be found at the link below.

www.gov.ie/en/collection/63363b-data-on-individual-schools/.

Special schools support by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) support children and young people aged between 4 and 18 years of age with the most complex special educational needs and ensure positive links are established and fostered between the home, school and other agencies for these children.

There continues to be an increasing need to provide additional special school places to support children with complex needs. To meet this need, eleven new special schools have been established in recent years and capacity has been expanded in a number of others. Five schools have been established for the 2025/26 school year in counties, Cork, Dublin (2), Monaghan and Tipperary.

My department and the NCSE are committed to ensuring that sufficient special education placements remain available for children with special educational needs and will continue to review and monitor the need to expand special school provision.