Written answers
Thursday, 17 October 2019
Department of Education and Skills
School Staff
Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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20. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the additional recruitment in schools which will take place as a result of budget 2020; the progress made in school recruitment since mid-2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42614/19]
Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Budget 2020 provides the fourth successive year of major reinvestment in our education and training system as we continue to implement the Action Plan for Education, our plan to make Ireland’s education and training service the best in Europe by 2026. In 2020, the budget for the Department of Education and Skills will increase by €360 million, a 3.4% increase on last year. In total, the Education budget will have increased by almost €2 billion compared to 2016.
Over 580 additional teaching posts in schools will be funded to cater for children with special needs, growth in student population and reduced pupils teacher ratios in small schools with 4 teachers or less.
In the current school year, the number of teachers employed in our schools has reached their highest ever level at almost 71,000. The number of teaching posts has increased by almost 5,100 when compared with the 2016/17 school year.
Budget 2020 has also provided for 1,064 additional SNAs posts which will bring the total number of SNA posts in schools to over 17,000 in 2020. SNA numbers have increased by almost 3,000 to 15,950 from June 2017 to present.
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