Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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237. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a breakdown of how the 1,600 new special needs assistant posts for 2025 will be distributed across the country, and specifically how many will be allocated to schools in Dublin Bay north, given ongoing reports of unmet need in the area. [18327/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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238. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills whether she will commit to streamlining the NCSE review process for schools seeking additional special needs assistant support, in light of concerns that delays in decision making are impacting students with autism and complex needs; and if she will provide average processing times for such reviews in the past 12 months. [18328/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 237 and 238 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.

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. This is an increase of 39% and 80% respectively since 2016 when the number of special education teachers was under 15,000 and we had just 13,000 SNAs in our schools.

Allocations of special education teaching (SET) 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: . Last year, the NCSE streamlined the review processes so that it would be completed as quickly as possible and this has alleviated the administrative burden on schools when seeking a review of their SNA allocation.

When reviewing the allocation, 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 organiser (SENO) available to the school to discuss their SNA deployment within the school and how 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 continues 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.