Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-28
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I thank the Deputy for the question. The Government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs to fulfil their full potential and the programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The National Council for Special Education has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on care support for children and young people with special educational needs in our schools, including the allocation of special needs assistant support to schools. It has responsibility for managing and processing requests from schools for a review of their SNA allocations.
I fully understand and have seen the critical role special needs assistants play in the successful inclusion of students with additional and significant care needs in schools. The Department has been steadily building the level of SNA support in our education system. By the end of this year, there will be over 24,896 SNAs in our mainstream classes, special classes and special schools. That will grow to 26,000 or more over the next while.  This represents a 46% increase since 2020. The Minister and I have been engaging intensively to ensure all the concerns raised are understood.
The Deputy raised an issue with a specific school. I will ask the NCSE to ensure that that review is taken out as soon as possible. If the Deputy has more details, we could follow up afterwards. I reassure the House that the value we place on the role of the special needs assistant in the school system is huge. SNAs have contributed enormously to the provision of specialised education. We are going to continue to grow those numbers into next year and beyond to ensure we are meeting the needs of children and school communities.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-28