THE DEPARTMENT of Education has begun a value for money audit of a scheme that assists pupils with special needs.
The audit of special needs assistants is under way in 100 schools, including 20 special schools.
The number of assistants has increased dramatically in the past decade.
The scheme now costs €300 million each year and employs 18,000 people.
In 1998, there were only 300 assistants.
But some school principals have raised concern about the lack of uniformity in the way special needs assistants carry out their duties - and the lack of clearer direction from the department.
The department used a similar value for money audit to impose severe cuts in the provision of information technology supports in schools recently.
Amid talk of cutbacks, the timing of the audit has raised concerns.
But the department insists there is no question of cutbacks in frontline services.
The purpose of the review, it says, is to see if the existing model is the correct one to meet the needs of students. The review was originally planned two years ago.
In briefings with teachers' unions, the department has insisted that the process is a review - rather than an evaluation - of the programme.
Yesterday the department said the audit was "one of a range of modernisation initiatives aimed at moving public sector management away from the traditional focus on inputs to concentrate on the achievement of results. It requires the analysis of exchequer spending in a systematic manner and provides a basis to inform decisions concerning priorities within and between various programmes."
Schools are allocated special needs assistants to help them care for pupils with disabilities.
Schools taking part in the review will be selected at random. The purpose is to gain an accurate picture of the daily work of the assistants.
Almost 18 per cent of children have special educational needs, according to an expert study last year.
The report from the National Council for Special Education says 190,303 children in Ireland have special educational needs - almost one child in five.
The NCSE also pointed out there had been no national study on the prevalence of disability or of special educational needs among children in Ireland.
It said its figure of 190,303, which it arrived at by collating existing research into areas such as physical, intellectual and learning disabilities, is as reliable a guide as it is possible to obtain at this point.
More than €820 million was provided for special education in 2007. This is €180 million, or nearly 30 per cent, more than the allocation in 2006.
