Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 July 2015
463. Deputy Robert Dowds asked the Minister for Education and Skills if there is a sufficient number of special needs assistants to meet demand at primary level in the forthcoming academic year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27010/15]
View answer11,330 SNA posts, an increase of 365 posts, or over 3%, are available to the NCSE to allocate to the end of 2015.
All schools were asked to apply to NCSE for SNA support for the 2015/16 school year by 18th March 2015. The NCSE also continued to accept applications after this date in recognition that enrolments may not have been completed or where assessments were not completed.
On conclusion of this process, the NCSE evaluated the level of SNAs required to meet the needs of schools for the coming year and advised the Department on the quantum of SNAs that would need to be provided to meet this need.
The final advice on this was received on 18th June and my Department is currently working to finalise its consideration of this as quickly as possible.
Details of SNA allocations to schools for 2015/16 will be available on the NCSE website on completion of this process.
