Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
Question:152. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education the amount of funding currently allocated to SNA provision. [33727/21]
View answerWednesday, 23 June 2021
Questions (152)
Written answers
The state will invest approximately €2 Billion, or over 20% of its total educational budget, in 2021 on making additional provision for children with special educational needs next year. This represents an increase of over 50% in total expenditure since 2011, at which time €1.247 billion per annum was provided.
The SNA scheme provides mainstream primary, post primary and special schools with additional adult support staff to assist children with special educational needs who also have additional and significant care needs to attend school.
SNAs are recruited specifically to assist schools in providing the necessary non–teaching services to pupils with additional and significant care needs. The role of the SNA is to support the classroom teacher and special education teachers, and to assist in the care needs of pupils with disabilities in an educational context.
There are currently over 17,000 SNA posts allocated to primary, post primary and special schools. Budget 2021 provided an additional 990 Special Needs Assistants. There will be over 18,000 SNA posts by the end of 2021 which is an increase of 70% since 2011.
For 2021 in excess of €601 million has been allocated to the payment of salaries to facilitate the provision of SNA support to primary, post primary and special schools.