The parents and staff of Scoil Naomh Cholmcille in County Louth are at the gates of the Dáil today. They are protesting the failure of the Government to provide the school with an adequate number of special needs assistants, SNAs, for children with autism spectrum disorder. They have just one SNA to share between 12 kids. It is by no means a unique situation. SNA provision is in crisis across the State. Indeed, the assessment process used to allocate resources is clearly not fit for purpose. Scoil Naomh Cholmcille has repeatedly made requests for extra SNAs which have been denied by the Department. The school has been told to reprioritise its resources. The fact is the school does not have enough resources. This is by no means a unique situation. I have come across the same issue in my own constituency. Will the Taoiseach ensure that the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, intervenes for this school and others?

It is my understanding that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, is meeting with the school concerned and that the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, is also engaged on the issue. I must say that SNA provision is not in crisis. The expenditure on special needs education has grown dramatically in recent years. We have expanded the number of SNAs in our schools.

Demand has also expanded.

That should be acknowledged. There needs to be balance in the debate here.

Ministers do not allocate to every individual school across the country. We cannot be expected to do that and neither can the Oireachtas. We make representations in respect of different schools. There is a general allocation system and so forth. However, the numbers have never been higher. It is a system I introduced, as Minister for Education, back in 1998. There was no system prior to that. It has facilitated the integrated nature and mainstreaming of special needs education in the country. We will continue to invest in it.