Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 July 2014
215. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated full year cost of restoring the recommended number of resource hours for students with special needs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32162/14]
View answerI wish to firstly explain to the Deputy that more resources than ever before are being provided to ensure that the educational requirements of children with special educational needs can continue to be met at primary and second level, and that as many children as possible can be educated with their peers in mainstream education.
Resources which are provided to support pupils with special educational needs have been protected, and in some areas increased, in 2014 to take into account increased demand and demographic growth, despite the ongoing severe financial position and a requirement to make expenditure savings across a range of areas. This includes additional provision for the allocation of resource teaching support. An additional 480 resource teaching posts have been made available to the NCSE for the 2014/15 school year over that provided for in 2013/14. This will ensure that, although there are considerably more children receiving assessments of special educational need for the 2014/15 school year, the allocation can be maintained at current levels for all qualifying children.
Despite the fact that there has again been an increase in demand for resource teaching allocations this year, Minister Quinn maintained the allocations for schools at the level which applied in 2013/14 school year, that is 85% of the Special Education Review Committee (SERC) recommended resource teaching allocations.
In order to restore resource teaching hours allocations for 2014/15 to date to 100% of SERC-recommended allocation levels, some 975 additional teaching posts would be required at an approximate additional annual cost of €58.5 Million. Finally, I wish to advise the Deputy that the Report on a Proposed New Model for Allocating Teachers for Students with Special Educational Needs recently published by the NCSE is being considered in my Department. To assist with this process, my Department will soon begin to gather the information required to assist in the development of the proposed new model and in particular will to see how the proposed model will impact on schools and most importantly on children with special educational needs.
