Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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537. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will reconsider the way staff are counted in special schools from a management point of view (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29405/25]

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.

Special schools are staffed annually on the basis of their actual student profiles and the disability category of each student. In 2025 over €2.9 billion will be spent supporting children with special educational needs. This figure builds on previous years and represents over a quarter of the education budget. It will provide for, amongst other things, 400 new special classes and 300 new special school places. It will also increase our special educational posts by 768 special education teacher and 1,600 special needs assistant (SNA) posts nationwide.

Additional amendments to Teacher Terms and Conditions, including pay and allowances, can only be achieved through engagement and collective bargaining agreements between the Government and the Public Service unions. This is one of the matters that may come under consideration under the local bargaining provision for Public Service Agreement (PSA) 2024-2026 and as matters under industrial relations processes are confidential to the parties it would not be appropriate for me to comment any further at this time.