The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has apologised for "any and all upset and uncertainty" caused by a review of special needs assistants' (SNAs) allocations.
Its Chief Executive Officer John Kearney said the NCSE "duly notes and apologises for any and all upset and uncertainty caused to children, parents, special needs assistants, and school communities in recent weeks".
"This was never our intention," he told the Oireachtas Committee on Education.
Last month, Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton announced a pause to the review of SNA allocations following concerns raised by parents and schools.
Mr Kearney added: "We continue to work closely and collaboratively with all involved to provide much greater clarity and reassurance to parents, schools, and SNAs as we move forward."
He said over 1,017 reviews of school allocations have been completed for the upcoming school year with letters "beginning to issue".
Mr Kearney welcomed the Department of Education's pause of the review, adding the Minister for Education, "rightly heard the voices of concern".
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The Department of Education and Youth also apologised for the "upset and uncertainty" caused to parents, SNAs and school communities.
Principal Officer for Special Education Angela Corcoran said: "We are working closely and collaboratively with all involved to provide much greater clarity and reassurance to parents, schools, and SNAs as we move forward."
She said supporting children with special educational needs is "one of the department's highest priorities".
Ms Corcoran said funding for special education has been increased to €3 billion, "a nearly 60% increase over the last five years".
The department is responding to the growing number of children with additional needs, adding the "prevalence of autism is rising, and that this requires enhanced support across all schools and more specialist provision", she added.
"The level of need for special education places continues to increase year on year."
"The department remains committed to ensuring that every child receives the education they have a right to and deserve.
"That commitment drives our work every day," she added.
'Huge amount of work' has been done
Angela Corcoran said she "would hope" the SNA workforce development plan will be ready by June.
However, she said: "I can’t firmly commit to that."
She was responding to Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins who asked if it would be June or July.
"I just need a date," said Ms Cummins.
Ms Corcoran had initially told the committee that she could not give an "actual, specific date on when that will be published".
However, she said a "huge amount of the work" was completed.
When asked for a percentage, she said: "I would say we have 90% of the work done."
Ms Corcoran said: "We do want to get it right. We are still engaging with all those stakeholders, including the SNAs."
Ms Cummins said the "last couple of weeks have damaged the Department and the NCSE, in terms of the trust that parents and educational bodies have".
Last week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Government did not sign off on the review of SNAs are allocated at schools across Ireland.
He was defending the move to pause the review and reallocation of SNAs for the coming school year.
The number of SNAs at around 580 schools were reviewed by the NCSE, and a third were told that the number of SNAs at their school would be reduced from September.
Two thirds were deemed to need more SNAs or to keep their current allocation as it was.
At a meeting last Monday, the Government agreed not to reduce the number of SNAs at any schools from September, but in schools where the NCSE said more SNAs were needed, they will be allocated.
Once a revised circular, a redeployment scheme and a workforce development plan for SNAs are published, the NCSE will again review SNA allocations at schools for the 27/28 academic year.
