Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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393. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if matters raised in correspondence (details supplied) will be reviewed; if an additional special needs assistant support will be allocated to a school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36036/25]

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

Special needs assistants (SNAs) play a central role in the successful inclusion of students with additional and significant care needs in schools. They help ensure that these students can access an education to enable them to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.

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.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has responsibility for coordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special educational needs, including the allocation of special needs assistants (SNAs). The NCSE has advised my department that all schools have been informed of their SNA allocation for the 2025/26 school year.

The Special Education Teaching (SET) Allocation Model introduced in 2017 was intended to form the basis of an SNA front loading model, however this has not been possible. The data which informs how learning needs can be met through the SET Allocation Model is not suitable to indicate the care needs of children in a school, using it would lead to SNA resources being incorrectly deployed.

In the last two years, the NCSE has been working with schools to address additional care needs that arise by means of the exceptional review process. This process involves detailed analysis of the care needs in individual schools and ensures that the correct resources are applied to children who need them. At present, this process is the best approach to assist schools in supporting vital care needs.

Work will continue until a successful model is ready to introduce. Further work is being undertaken as highlighted above in tandem with the review of SET, which will support our thinking as how best SNA resources can also be managed. It is important that any allocation process is based on care needs rather than educational ability. My department is fully committed to establishing an SNA model of allocation that is fully cognisant of matching SNA resources with the care needs of those children who require this support.

It is open to any school which feels like it has insufficient SNA support to meet the needs of its students to submit to the NCSE a request seeking a review of its allocation. Detailed information on the NCSE's SNA review process is published on the NCSE's website.

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.