Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 June 2018
291. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the €5.5 million allocated to special education teaching posts as outlined in budget 2018; the amount of the allocation that has been spent; the way in which the funds were spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24299/18]
View answerIn 2018, in the region of €1.75 billion will be invested in Special Education, nearly one fifth of the overall Education budget, and up 43% since 2011.
This funding includes provision for up to 13,400 Special Education Teaching posts in mainstream primary and post primary schools, providing additional teaching support to pupils with special educational needs, and over 1,440 special classes, with over 140 new Special Classes to open for the 2018/19 school year. This compares to 548 special classes in 2011. Almost 1400 teachers are also allocated to special schools.
An additional 900 teaching posts have been provided in the 2017/2018 school year to support the introduction of this new allocation model. The provision of an additional 900 teaching posts is a very significant investment in the provision of additional teaching support for pupils with special educational needs in our schools.
For the 2017/18 school year to date, 13,306 additional special education teaching posts have been allocated, of which 13,281 have been allocated to schools, with 25 posts having been allocated to the NCSE to develop support services for schools.
Allocations continue to be made to schools, where exceptional circumstances arise, in accordance with the review criteria set at www.ncse.ie.
The actual expenditure on special education teaching posts in 2018 will not be known until financial reporting has been completed at the end of 2018.
