Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

323. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to recruit a sufficient number of SNAs, therapists, SLTs and OTs to match the demand of SEN students this September. [30859/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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.?

768 special education teacher and 1,600 special needs assistant (SNA) posts have been created for the 2025/26 school year. This will mean that by the end of this year there will be close to 21,000 special educational teachers and over 23,000 SNAs in our mainstream classes, special classes and special schools. Bringing the total number of teachers and SNAs committed to supporting and nurturing children with special educational needs, to over 44,000 These posts are critical to enabling children to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.

The allocation of special education teaching (SET) posts for the next school year were provided to schools in February and SNA allocations were confirmed by the NCSE to schools in early June.

My department are currently preparing for budget estimates where any additional resources required for next year will be identified.

As you are aware, there is a strong government commitment to establish a National Therapy Service in education. This new service will ensure that children with the greatest level of need will receive the greatest level of support, through universal, targeted and individualised interventions provided by therapists in schools. Work is ongoing on its establishment, and it is acknowledged there is a shortage of therapists in Ireland at this time. In terms of managing the recruitment and retention of therapists and following on from the Programme for Government’s commitment to increase training places for crucial disciplines, my department is engaging with colleagues in the Department of Health, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science alongside the Department for Children, Disability and Equality and the Health Service Executive (HSE) to ensure an increase in training places for key disciplines such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists as a matter of priority.

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.