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. Special education funding will exceed €3 billion in 2026 – up 58% since 2020 and the highest amount ever provided.
Special needs assistants (SNAs) play a key role in the successful inclusion of students with additional and significant care needs in schools to enable them to achieve their best outcomes and reach their full potential.
The number of SNAs allocated to schools nationally has increased by 45% between the 2020/21 school year and the present and by the end of the 2026/27 school year there will be close to 25,000 SNAs in our schools. The increase in numbers of SNAs reaches across all counties and across all education settings including mainstream, special classes and special schools.
When a school has been allocated an SNA post, the Board of Management, as the employer, is responsible for filling the vacancy. This is also true of all other posts in the schools’ system including teachers. Timelines for recruitment of school staff will vary across 4,000 individual schools but there is no evidence of any difficulty with recruitment or retention when it comes to SNAs. Stakeholder feedback indicates SNA courses continue to attract students, schools can fill vacant SNA posts, candidates are coming forward and SNAs are choosing to remain in their roles. The service is operating effectively, and children are being supported.
Data on the needs of individual students is maintained at individual school level and detailed within the individual student support file held by the school. Student needs change on an ongoing basis and an allocation model which supports schools to make the best decision for the care needs of their individual students as happens currently is the best way to meet needs which change and evolve. The National Council for Special Education, who have a key role in the allocation and deployment of SNAs are available to assist schools on an ongoing basis.
