Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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503. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to improve pay and conditions for special needs assistants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [63795/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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SNAs are valued members of our school communities who carry out vital work in our schools supporting students with diverse needs. The Government is committed to the delivery of quality public services and continues to approach public service pay in a balanced way that is reasonable and fair to both public servants and to the taxpayer. This has been achieved through a series of national collective agreements, agreed between trade unions and the Government, applying across the public sector.

Circular 0056/2025 confirms that SNAs are covered under the Public Service Agreement 2024–2026 (PSA) which applies to all public servants. The PSA builds on the previous agreement “Building Momentum” which ended in 2023 to provide for a number of pay increases that have been approved by Government. The pay element of the PSA includes further increases of 9.25% up to June 2026.

As is standard practice, discussions with public service unions continue on all matters relating to pay agreements. Any review of terms and conditions including pay and pensions for SNAs will follow these established processes and be considered in detail by the Department of Education and Youth, the Department of Public Expenditure Infrastructure Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and the relevant unions.

The terms and conditions of employment for Special Needs Assistants are issued in accordance with their individual SNA contracts. Please refer to Circulars 15/2005 and 12/2005 for further details. My department has commenced work on the first SNA Workforce Development Plan which includes a review of the SNA employment contract. The review of the SNA employment contract is a commitment set out in the (previous) public service pay agreement Building Momentum 1 and Building Momentum 2 Clause 1.5.3 (2). The most recent Public Service Agreement 2024 to 2026, outlines that the SNA contract review is one of key elements of the Government’s Reform Agenda.

The review involves an update of provisions in the existing SNA employment contract to comply with current employment legislation and align with other work on the plan. More information on the SNA Workforce Development plan is available on the SNA Information Hub on www.gov.ie.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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504. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to ensure that all new school builds include an autism class; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [63796/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Dedicated classrooms for students with special education needs are now included as standard in all new accommodation briefs for new school buildings and major extension projects. The department would normally include two special education needs classes with a new eight classroom primary school and increase the number of special education classes based on the size of the primary school being provided. Similarly with a new 1,000 student post-primary school, the department is now looking to include six special education classes.

Furthermore, my department is progressing urgent building projects that involve the repurposing of existing space in schools for special education purposes. These projects will ensure that existing school capacity is optimised and that teaching spaces are adaptable and flexible to facilitate a student-centred approach to learning. Potential repurposing options will be school and site specific, presenting different opportunities and challenges.

To support the delivery of these classes, a new streamlined approach to funding was made available to repurpose accommodation for special education. A special education start up grant of €30,000 for each new special education classroom sanctioned and opened for the 2025/26 school year was payable to the school directly following receipt of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) notification of the sanctioned classes. Additional funding for small scale repurposing works up to a maximum of €70,000 per class was also available to schools on an application basis. Further information on special education repurposing supports can be accessed on www.gov.ie.