I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) makes allocations for Teachers and Special Needs Assistants to special schools each year. In doing so, they take into account the number of pupils enrolled at the school and the care needs of the pupils attending the school, in accordance with Department of Education and Skills allocation criteria. The number of special school teaching posts which will be allocated to Benincasa Special School by the NCSE for the coming 2017/18 school year will be 8 teachers and 1 Administrative Principal. The number of Special Needs Assistant posts (SNAs) which will be allocated to the school for coming 2017/18 school year to support the care needs of pupils will be 15 SNAs. This is the same number of teaching and SNA posts which were allocated to the school during the current 2016/17 school year. There has therefore been no reduction to the number of SNA or special school teaching posts being allocated to the school by the NCSE.
As the remainder of the Deputy's relates to a service matter I have arranged for the question to be referred to the Health Service Executive (HSE) for direct reply.