229 Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the extra resources provided to the Redundancy Unit of his Department succeeded in tackling the backlog in processing redundancy payments; the length of this backlog; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9332/12]

Extra resources were assigned to the Redundancy Unit at the end of October 2011 to ensure that Special Needs Assistants that have been made redundant would have their claims for payment processed as quickly as possible. At that time, there was a backlog of applications of approximately 10 months. The Redundancy Unit is currently processing claims received in August/September 2011. My Department continues to prioritise the processing of redundancy applications from those SNAs who have not obtained alternative employment in a non teaching capacity in primary, secondary or community/comprehensive schools in the current school year.