Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

There have been consistent increases in the number of SNAs in our schools on an ongoing basis. The largest increase in a long time is happening this year. About 860 additional special education teachers and 1,717 new SNAs will be recruited as a result of budget 2026. That will bring the total number of SNAs in the State to 24,900. Therefore, it should be within the capacity of the Department of education and the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, to work with individual schools. I do not have the specifics on each school - there are over 3,000 primary schools, and I appreciate the Deputy raising the case of one in his own locality - but I will refer the matter to the NCSE. However, there is no shortage in the increased allocation. It is at a very high level now, with close to 25,000 special needs assistants in the county, so surely some should be facilitated.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-10