2026-02-12

101. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth the projected timeline for the roll-out of the 1,717 additional SNAs and 860 additional SETs announced as part of budget 2026; the regional allocation model; and the measures in place to ensure timely recruitment. [11013/26]

The budget promised over 1,700 SNAs and 860 new SETs. I ask the Minister of State about recruitment and delivery so far, and the timelines involved for the roll-out of those SNAs and SETs.

I thank the Deputy. The Government is fully committed to supporting special education needs to achieve their full potential and the programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective. The NCSE has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on the education provision for children with special education needs. I assure the Deputy the 860 special education teachers and 1,700 special needs assistants will be allocated well in advance of the commencement of the 2026-2027 school year to mainstream classes, special classes and special schools. As in previous years, the special education teaching allocations for mainstream classes is intended to be published as part of the general staffing allocation in February. The NCSE manages the allocation of SNAs to the school and it is the responsibility of the council to ensure these resources are allocated to children with the greatest level of need. The number of SNAs available for allocation has continued to increase annually and this has resulted in a significant increase in the number of SNA posts in schools. Budget 2026 provides for a further 1,700 SNA posts, which will bring the total number to close to 25,000 by the end of 2026. As in previous years, the NCSE will advise all schools of their SNA allocations in this year and these allocations will be made known to schools at an earlier stage than in previous years. The provision of early allocation to schools will ensure they will be in a position to plan for the 2026-2027 school year, including recruitment where necessary. In addition, given the large number of additional resources for specialised provision, it is important to point out 300 special classes have already been sanctioned for 2026. That is months ahead of where we were last year. This time last year we just looking at the numbers in the first and second week of February. We are a number of months ahead, we have those sanctioned and there will be recruitment in relation to those as well.

I thank the Minister of State. I asked this question because of the importance of schools and families being able to plan. However, in reality there are families who still do not know what school they can send their child to. They are right across Mayo. A special school in Mayo that does absolutely wonderful work is St. Anthony's School in Castlebar. The management team of Fiona Byrne, Anna Sweeney, Helena Brady as well as all the staff do amazing work but within the first hour of admissions opening for this calendar year the school was oversubscribed. Applicants exceeded the capacity of the school. That is leaving families and also the school in an incredibly difficult scenario. The Minister of State says this is going to happen in February and March but families are struggling and stressed today. St. Anthony's and many other schools across Mayo are trying to accommodate children but they do not know what resources they will have. This is a priority. There must be an expected timeframe for delivery.

I thank the Deputy. Last year 1 February was the deadline. That was extended by a week due to Storm Éowyn. We looked at trying to plan in February, March and April last year and saw the challenges families and people were meeting. A decision was made by the then Minister, Deputy McEntee, and me to bring the dates back to 1 October. One of the first discussions I had with the Minister, Deputy Naughton, upon her appointment was to look at the whole concept so we can bring better planning into the system and greater certainty for students and families. A number of years ago I was at a school gate meeting a family whose child was finishing sixth class on 26 June without knowing where the child was going to start post-primary education in September. Through the various challenges we have had on it, I constantly have that family in my mind, and we need to do far better. The Deputy makes the point that families and parents are stressed about this. We have moved this system back four or five months to bring certainty to them.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. It is fundamental that families have certainty today. They need to know. We talk about forward planning and so on but in Mayo letters are coming from the Department and the NCSE and basically promising children a place in a special education school. Then the family goes to the school and is told it is oversubscribed. That is the type of planning I am talking about. The system is so disconnected. How do we have a scenario where the NCSE is delivering letters promising a special education place when there is no such place in Mayo for the child? That is the point I want to get across to the Minister of State. I must acknowledge the 2,500 teachers promised in the budget is very ambitious but I am asking the Minister of State for certainty and timelines for SNAs and special education teachers for St. Anthony's School and for many other schools across Mayo.

Deputy Cummins has a supplementary question, as does Deputy Gould.

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for letting me come in. I agree with Deputy Lawless and the Minister of State that the planning is most welcome because there is then an opportunity to foresee what is going to come down the tracks. However, I have raised several times that the 1 October cut-off point has been very detrimental to parents and I am still hearing they are not being given letters of eligibility and are being told the portal has closed. What is the solution to that? I am still concerned. I had a meeting yesterday with a number of parents, teachers and principals about special education and there is still huge confusion. The Minister and Minister of State are doing their best on the forward planning and I appreciate that but a bit of clarity would help. Families feel there is a drip feed of information on the plan being put in place for next year, so the speedier that is the better. I am especially worried about those who are going into post-primary who still have not heard where they are going. The transition is very important, particularly the one from primary to secondary school.

This goes back to the Minister of State's point about planning. We welcome extra resources, special classes and special schools. I spoke to a principal yesterday. St. Killian's School wants to build an additional school as it is full to capacity and there is a need for extra places. I know of a child in Cork and we are in February now but he has no school place. How can a child have no school place? I hear about all these announcements but what is happening on the ground is children being left behind. The Minister of State is talking about planning. The principals of the special schools must be included in decision-making, planning and engagement because they are the people who are on the ground and know what is happening. I have a final point in relation to Bweeng. You have children going to special schools and classes all over the county because there are not places where they are from. I take the point made earlier but I am a TD for Cork North-Central and I know of children going to Cork East, Cork North-West and Cork South-Central. They are travelling from Knocknaheeney to Carrigaline and to Macroom. That is what is happening on the ground.

I accept the point they are travelling across the county. Transport and trying to ensure the provision of special education is as close as possible to families is one of the things we have discussed. A lot of children with additional needs are travelling long distances to get to their school places and it is something we need to be very mindful of. Regarding 1 October, for anyone after that date we are issuing the letters of eligibility. Those letters have started over the past day or so and they will continue. We have worked very closely on it. I want to be clear on this because there is some commentary that 1 October is an arbitrary deadline but 1 October was brought in to ensure we would be in a position to have forward planning. On that planning, it is important we have sight of the information from other Departments like the Departments of children and Social Protection. We need good information to plan properly. There are a raft of issues around it but we need sight of where the challenges are. We are looking at ways and means of ensuring we have information earlier, not just when the parent notifies the NCSE but also if a child is on domiciliary care or AIMS. I have no issue if the Deputies have individual cases. We will work with them to try to find solutions for them.