Thomas Gould
Ceist:589. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will review a cut in SET hours for a school (details supplied). [30549/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 28 April 2026
Ceisteanna (589)
Freagraí scríofa
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 Special Education Teaching (SET) allocation model is a standardised allocation model that provides schools with additional teaching hours to support the identified and recorded 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.
The SET allocation model 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 Special Education Teaching (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 learning need.
This September, the SET support will grow again with more than 15,200 SETs working in mainstream classes in schools nationwide.
As is the case every year, where needs change resources follow with teaching hours moving to the schools where children need them most.
For any school that received a reduction in their allocation, this is due to changes in the profile of the school including demographic changes and enrolment reduction.
In the case of the school referred to by the Deputy, the learning needs profile of the school has reduced and this resulted in their SET Allocation being adjusted by 7.5 hours. The enrolment in the school has also reduced by over 9.97%, the school has an allocation of 172.5 additional teaching hours per week which is 7 full time SET Posts and 0.84 hours of a shared post.
My department and the NCSE are committed to delivering an education system that is of the highest quality and where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to achieve their full potential.