Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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423. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a response will issue to correspondence (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37627/25]

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.

The NCSE actively encourage expressions of interest from schools to open special classes, and I appreciate and commend the efforts taken by boards of management in expressing their interest. However, it is not always possible to open a special class in every school that expresses an interest.

When assessing the needs in the local area, the NCSE identify schools in the neighbouring vicinity with available special class vacancies or capacity and assess their capability with consideration to demographical and statistical data.

Schools not sanctioned this year, such as the school referred to by the Deputy will remain as a potential option for future classes. Local SENOs remain available to assist and advise parents of children with special educational needs. The NCSE advise that the school already have four special classes.

The allocations of special education teaching posts for the next school year were published on 11 February and all schools received an email notification from the NCSE of their allocation.

For the 2025/26 school year close to 15,000 special education teachers have been allocated to schools to support these children and young people.

The allocation model uses a variety of statistical data to complete allocations. This data includes, enrolment data, data on educational needs profiles (literacy and numeracy) and data on educational disadvantage. This data is sourced from within the education sector to ensure it is validated and assured. The only external data used is the Pobal HP Deprivation Index which is used by Irish government departments for identification of disadvantage.

The 2025/26 school year will see almost 86% of schools either increase their allocation of hours or retain their previous allocation. Of schools who will see a reduction this is driven by demographic change in the geographic area and a reduction of enrolments in the school. The vast majority of these schools will see a reduction of under five hours.

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.

As the NCSE is responsible for the allocation of SNAs to schools, I have forwarded the school's details to them for their attention and direct reply.

Deputies are also welcome to raise such matters with the NCSE directly through their dedicated Oireachtas query line at: oireachtasqueries@ncse.ie

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: ncse.ie

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.