Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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283. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will give detailed consideration to the issues outlined in document, recently produced by a national organisation (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33303/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Over recent budgets, additional resources have been made available to our schools, including through the delivery of thousands of extra teaching and Special Needs Assistant posts, increased capitation in schools, enhanced supports for school leadership, additional resources for special education, inclusion and wellbeing measures, reduced primary school class sizes, actions to assist teacher supply and free schoolbooks to help reduce the school costs for families.

My aim for Budget 2026 is to deliver on the priorities outlined in the Programme for Government and to continue to support the students, staff and families in the education sector.

In the lead up to the Budget, my Department receives a number of pre-budget submissions from a range of different stakeholders in the education sector and from organisations involved in other areas of public policy. All such submissions will be reviewed and they will inform the specific budgetary priorities that I will be seeking to achieve in Budget 2026. Therefore, as I am sure the Deputy appreciates, it would not be appropriate for me to outline any more specific plans at this preliminary stage of the Budgetary process.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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284. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she is aware of the lack of basic and appropriate facilities in a school (details supplied) to meet the needs of students with additional and profound needs; the steps she will take to address these ongoing concerns; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33304/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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A site visit was recently undertaken to the school in question to meet with school management to plan proposed improvement works to the school building during the summer holidays 2025. This is in addition to works already carried out during the school's Easter holidays.

The Department will continue to work directly with the school with a view to improving the school’s accommodation.

Louis O'Hara (Galway East, Sinn Fein)
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285. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if schools identified as having surplus SNA positions will retain these for the 2025/2026 school year; if they will be retained for future school years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33336/25]

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 potential and the Programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective.

There are two schools closing in June 2025 and the SNA posts will be removed at the end of this school year. No other SNA post will be removed from any other schools for the 2025/26 school year.

While the NCSE have identified at this time approximately 70 posts in schools where the care needs have reduced, it is not intended that these posts will be removed from a school’s overall allocation until the end of the 2025/26 academic year.

This will allow for the SNA/s involved to continue to support the school community for an additional year at which point the recently announced SNA re-deployment scheme will become fully operational and available to the affected SNAs.

The NCSE will, as done this year and in previous years, review all school allocations for the 2026/27 school year and will allocate or reallocate SNAs to schools based on the care needs of the students enrolled.