Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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132. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the action she is taking to increase the numbers of SNAs and special education teachers available to teach in schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39847/25]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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160. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will increase funding for SNAs and SNA allocations for schools to ensure that lack of SNAs is not a barrier to any child accessing an appropriate school place; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39846/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 132 and 160 together.

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.

I know the central role that our special needs assistants (SNAs) play in the successful inclusion of students with additional and significant care needs in schools to enable them to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.

That is why the number of SNAs available for allocation has continued to increase annually resulting in more SNAs than ever now being employed in our schools.

Budget 2025 provided for 1,600 SNAs, the largest number ever allocated in a single year, meaning the total number of SNAs available in our schools in September will be 23,179. This is more than double the number of SNAs that were in our schools 10 years ago.

As the Deputy knows, it is the role of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to manage the allocations of SNAs across the country and to ensure that all of the additional SNAs provided for by this government are allocated to schools to support those children with the highest level of need so they get the highest level of support.

The NCSE also now has a full complement of staffing so has the resources and supports to ensure they can do their work effectively and in a timely manner. The NCSE advised all schools on the week of 6 June of their SNA allocation for the upcoming school year.

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

For the 2025/26 school year an additional 768 special education teacher posts have been allocated to schools to support children and young people.? This means there will be close to 21,000 teachers dedicated to students with special educational needs.

It is important that we continue to meet this need across our education system and as you know the Programme for Government commits to the recruitment of additional special education teachers and SNAs to provide greater support to students and schools. We will continue to engage through the estimates process to ensure that we can meet the needs of all children in our schools.