Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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1209. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of additional special needs assistants and special education teachers employed by her Department for the academic year 2024-2025; the planned for recruitment for 2025-2026; how these will be allocated across schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43381/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Ensuring that every child's experience in school is positive and that they have qualified, engaged teachers and special needs assistants (SNA) available to support them in their learning is a priority area of action for the Government.

My Department has been steadily building on the number of special education teacher and special needs assistant (SNA) posts in our education system. At the end of the 2024 school year there were just over 20,000 special education teachers and 22,000 SNAs in schools.

Budget 2025 provided for an additional 768 special education teachers and 1,600 SNA posts nationwide.

By the end of the 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. This will mean we will have over 44,000 teachers and SNAs working in our education system committed to supporting and nurturing children with special educational needs, enabling them to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) are responsible for the allocation of SNAs to schools and have advised that all schools were informed directly of their SNA allocations for the 2025/26 school. My Department does not have a role in the allocation process. The NCSE have further confirmed that the allocations have been published on their website and are available at the following link: SET Hours and SNA Allocations – National Council for Special Education – Working to deliver a better special education service.

The allocation of Special Education Teachers was issued to all mainstream schools in February 2025 for the 2025/26 school year.

A range of teacher supply measures have been introduced including recently a new measure to help teachers gain permanent roles more quickly.

Additionally:

• The Teaching Council is to streamline the registration process for eligible teachers who qualified outside of Ireland, allowing them to apply for registration and complete their induction requirements within the country.
• A Professional Master of Education (PME) fee refund scheme was introduced in Budget 2024 to encourage newly qualified teachers to take up teaching roles, and
• There is ongoing work on workforce planning for teachers and SNAs.

I am considering further measures to strengthen the teaching workforce and ensure that schools have the support needed to provide an excellent education for every student.