IMPACT has welcomed the announcement today (Tuesday 7th July) by the Department of Education and Skills that 610 additional SNA posts are to be allocated in the new school year commencing in September. 

The increase is in addition to the 365 extra posts announced by the Government in last October’s budget, and brings the number of whole time SNA posts to 11,820 from September 2015.

IMPACT's deputy general secretary, Kevin Callinan, said the increase in the number of posts was welcome news both for SNAs and for the families of children with special education needs.

“This is exceptionally good news on a number of fronts. It provides a major boost for children with special education needs. It expands the existing service and will help to meet growing demand. This will be welcome news for parents of those children too, as it will mean that there are more education resources available to them,” he said.

In its latest Quarterly Economic Observer, the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) has said it anticipates that the economy will grow at a “reasonably robust rate” during the 2015 to 2017 period, although it says that growth will moderate year-on-year.

The NERI report says that the economy remains below its potential output level, and, driven by strong but declining employment growth, is projected to grow faster than the economy’s long-run average potential growth rate out to 2017.