Thomas Gould
Question:160. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Education and Youth the number of schools in Cork that have had SET hours reduced; and the overall gross reduction. [40071/26]
View answerThursday, 28 May 2026
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The primary responsibility for the education of all pupils, including those with special education learning needs, is the class teacher or subject teacher.
The special education teaching (SET) allocation provides schools with additional teaching hours to support the learning needs of students in mainstream classes who have been identified using the Continuum of Support framework as requiring additional support.
The SET allocation model is designed to distribute additional teaching resources across the entire school system. This is to ensure that additional teaching resources are available to support students with the greatest level of learning need.
It is important to understand that SET resources are distributed to schools based on learning needs across the entire system.
For 2026/27 school year there will be more than 15,000 Special Education Teachers (SET) allocated to support children and young people with special education needs in mainstream classes.
It should be noted that in the last 5 years in County Cork, the number of special classes has increased by 73%, the number of SNAs overall has increased by 32% and the number of special education teachers has increased by 18%.
As has always been the case, the allocation of SET resources to schools will see some schools gaining hours while others may see a reduction in hours where there is change in the enrolment number and local demographics.
In Cork, there has been a reduction in enrolments of over 2,200 in 231 schools. In 139 of this school the profile change was significant which resulted in a reduced SET allocation. These reductions have been reallocated to almost 100 schools in Cork whose profile of need have increased along with an additional fifteen new SET teaching posts allocated to support this need.
In addition, a total of 23 Cork schools submitted a SET Review request to the NCSE. These are presently being processed by the NCSE and each school will be advised of the outcome before the end of the school year.
My Department and the NCSE are committed to delivering an education system that is of the highest quality where every child and young person feels valued and actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential.