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.

As the Special Education Teaching allocation model has been in place since 2017 based on a 2014 NCSE report, my Department believed a review of the model was prudent. The department commenced a review in late 2022 to ensure that the model was meeting the changing needs in special education.

The review examined the following:

• The individual inputs (components) of the model
• Feedback from our education partners and individual schools

During the review process our education partners and individual schools raised concerns in relation to the allocation of resources based on gender.

Gender was included as a component in the 2017 allocation model on the basis that in Ireland, just as in other jurisdictions, there appeared to be a higher incidence of special educational needs manifesting in male pupils in comparison with female pupils.

However, in the intervening period since the model was introduced, there have been developments and research in this area and also in the perception of gender.

It is now accepted that the female pupils may have a similar level of need and that this need is becoming apparent at later stages in their growth and development As a result, the continued use of gender was not the correct approach as it could cause inequities in the allocation of resources to schools based on pupil’s gender.

My department is committed to meeting the needs of all school children and young people. As provided in the Programme for Government this includes recruitment of additional special education teachers to provide greater support to students.