Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 25 March 2026
94. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth the criteria used by the National Council for Special Education when determining annual special education teacher allocations; the data sources; the way in which multiple-year reductions are considered in respect of school stability; the average processing times and outcomes of appeals over the past three years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22665/26]
View answer95. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will direct the National Council for Special Education to publish clear decision rationales for special education teacher allocation appeals; to reduce duplication in evidence required from schools; and to introduce an independent review layer for appeals that are initially unsuccessful; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22666/26]
View answer96. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will introduce a stability mechanism that prevents schools from incurring recurrent annual losses of special education teacher hours except in exceptional circumstances; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22667/26]
View answer100. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth the number of schools that experienced reductions in special education teacher hours; the total number of hours reduced; the number of appeals lodged; the number of appeals upheld, by county and by year for the past three years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22671/26]
View answer101. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth if her Department has conducted an impact assessment of repeated reductions in special education teacher hours on student learning outcomes and inclusion; if she will publish the findings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22672/26]
View answer103. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth the number of special education teachers employed each year since 2020; the number of posts created, reduced, or removed; the number of teachers redeployed or reassigned; the number of schools that gained or lost special education teaching hours, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22674/26]
View answer104. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will initiate a review of National Council for Special Education decision-making in relation to special education teacher allocations and the appeals framework, with a view to improving transparency, timeliness, and school engagement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22677/26]
View answer105. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will provide standardised, simplified guidance and a support helpline for schools preparing appeals for special education teacher allocations, and to minimise duplication of evidence requested across stages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22678/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 94, 95, 96, 100, 101, 103, 104 and 105 together.
At the outset I would like to confirm that there has been not cut to Special Education Teaching resources in our education system. On the contrary the allocation of special education teachers has increased from across all setting has increased from by 23% since 2021 and will be almost 21,700 in September 2026.
This is a demonstration that this 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 SET allocation model is a standardised allocation model that provides schools with additional teaching hours to support the teaching needs of students in mainstream classes.
The mainstream class teacher has primary responsibility for the progress and care of all children in their classrooms, including children with additional learning needs.
It is a distribution model to ensure that the children with the greatest level of need in mainstream can get access to additional teaching support. It provides a transparent means of allocating SET resources to best meet the needs of children and to ensure consistency and equity in the system.
The SET allocation model distributes the total available number of Special Education Teaching posts in line with each school’s profile of need.
The model makes an allocation based on a number of inputs, including enrolment numbers. It also uses school-level data from standardised tests (in the Primary school model) and Junior Cycle data (in the Post Primary model) to reflect levels of overall additional learning need in the schools. It also incorporates data on students who have been granted exemptions from tests as this indicates additional learning need is required by them. As all children and young people from disadvantaged areas may not attend a DEIS school, the model applies a small value to schools based on individual pupils Eircode and the HP deprivation index and this is to ensure that schools who are not in receipt of the additional DEIS resources are allocated resources to support their potential additional need.
Approximately 97% of all children, including those with special education needs, are educated in mainstream classes.
With the model some schools may see a reduction in their allocations due to change in the individual school profile due to changing demographics and reduction in enrolments with other schools seeing increased allocation due primarily to increasing enrolments. The majority of schools who see a reduction this is less than 5 hours or less in their allocation.
The revised model incorporates a stability mechanism, to ensure that adjustments are kept to a minimum. This is applied within the model by utilising 3-year average test data in creating the schools educational profile of need rather than using a single year. As the education profile is the largest weighting within the allocation model by using the 3-year average it minimises the level of change at individual school level.
This results in the key premise of supporting children and young people with the greatest level of additional learning need to receive the greatest level of support by ensuring that SET allocations are allocated to the right school at the right time.
When the model was introduced in 2017, the school data was only reprofiled on a 2/3-year cycle. The intervals between updates to school profiles historically created unintended consequences and impacts for schools.
In 2024 a decision was made to move to annual updating of school profiles, and this was welcomed by our education partners as it would have a twofold effect:
Greater consistency and stability for schools in terms of their allocation from year to year and a greater understanding for schools of any potential change to their profile from one update to the next.
The change to an annual process makes the model more sensitive to changes in an individual school’s enrolment and educational teaching needs profile, and adjustments will be applied in a timelier manner.
Every school is different, and individual schools can experience unique circumstances that may be difficult to reflect in a standardised method. This is always a challenge when making allocations in respect of almost 4,000 schools. It is for this reason that the Department, working with the National Council of Special Education (NCSE) streamlined the review process for special education teachers and schools who have any concerns can engage with the NCSE on their allocation.
It is important to clarify that the NCSE has streamlined the review process for SET over the last number of years and all information requested by the NCSE should already be available in schools as the data required are key components of the individual student support file in the school
For the 2025/26 school year a total of 144 review requests were received from schools which was 3.79% of all schools who received a SET Allocation. The NCSE recommended an increase for 120 schools which was 83.3% and the total additional hours allocated were 1,011 hours.
The NCSE complete the reviews, and the outcomes are advised to schools before the end of the preceding school year so that they could plan for the upcoming new school year.
For example, the review window where schools could request a review by the NCSE was from mid Feb to March 2025.
All reviews for the 2025/2026 school year were completed between March and June 2025 other than 2 schools who submitted late requests and the NCSE agreed with the principals that they would complete the reviews and advise the outcome in early July.
The NCSE publishes the SET data for all schools annually and the information for each of the preceding years is available on the NCSE website.
