Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2024
273. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education to provide a breakdown of the first and full-year cost of recruiting 100, 500, and 1,000 special education teachers respectively, in tabular form. [15985/24]
View answer274. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education the cost of increasing the salary of special education teachers by 1%, 2% and 5%, in tabular form. [15986/24]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 273 and 274 together.
Enabling children with special educational needs to receive an education is a priority for this government. It is also a key priority for my department and for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).
The vast majority of children with special educational needs are supported to attend mainstream classes with their peers. Where children with more complex needs require additional supports, special classes and special school places are provided.
In 2024, €2.7 billion is being spent on special education, an increase of €113 million, and this is dedicated to providing supports for children with special educational needs.
This includes funding to support children with special educational needs in mainstream classes; funding for new special classes and new special school places; additional special educational teachers, special needs assistants (SNAs) and funding for the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).
In 2024, the number of teaching and SNA posts in our schools will increase with an additional 744 teachers and 1,216 SNAs added to deliver up to 2,700 new places for children with special educational needs. This will mean we will have over 41,500 qualified and committed people in our schools who are focused wholly and exclusively on supporting children with special educational needs.
The NCSE has the responsibility for planning and coordinating school supports for children with special educational needs.
Special education teachers provide additional teaching support for students with special educational needs enrolled in mainstream classes in primary and post primary schools.
The special education teaching (SET) allocation model provides a single unified allocation for special educational support teaching needs to each school, based on each school’s educational profile.
Based on costings for the average teacher’s salary the following are estimates for appointing both primary and post-primary teachers to special education teacher posts.
|
Primary Teacher |
Post-Primary Teacher |
|
€65,670 – Excl. of ER PRSI |
€64,070- Excl. of ER PRSI |
Therefore if additional posts were to be created, depending on whether primary or post-primary teachers were recruited, it would be estimated to be a cost of:
|
Number of posts |
Primary |
Post-Primary |
|
100 |
€6,567,000 |
€6,407,000 |
|
500 |
€32,835,000 |
€32,035,000 |
|
1000 |
€65,670,000 |
€64,070,000 |
Based on an estimated allocation of 20,000 SET posts, the full-year cost of increasing the salary of those posts by 1%, 2% and 5%, is as follows.
|
Primary |
Increase |
Estimated cost of increase |
Posts |
Estimated cost of salary increase |
|
€65,670 |
1% |
€656.70 |
20,000 |
€13,134,000 |
|
€65,670 |
2% |
€1,313.40 |
20,000 |
€26,268,000 |
|
€65,670 |
5% |
€3,283.50 |
20,000 |
€65,670,000 |
|
Post- Primary |
Increase |
Estimated cost of increase |
Posts |
Estimated cost of salary increase |
|
€64,070 |
1% |
€640.70 |
20,000 |
€12,814,000 |
|
€64,070 |
2% |
€1,281.40 |
20,000 |
€25,628,000 |
|
€64,070 |
5% |
€3,203.50 |
20,000 |
€64,070,000 |
