Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am taking this issue on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills. I thank the Deputy for raising it, as it gives me an opportunity to clarify to the House the position on the allocation of SNAs for the coming year.

The Government, as the Deputy confirmed, has maintained funding for resources for children with special educational needs at a time when there is a continued requirement to make expenditure savings across a number of other areas. We are providing 10,575 SNA posts for allocation to schools for the 2012-13 school year. As the Deputy acknowledged, this is the same number of posts available for allocation for the current year. There has been no reduction in the overall number of SNA posts available in the coming school year. It is considered that, with prudent management of these resources, there will be sufficient posts to provide access to SNA support for all children who require such care support to attend school, in accordance with my Department's criteria.

The NCSE is responsible, through its network of local SENOs, for allocating SNAs to schools to support children with special educational needs. The council operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support which now includes a requirement for them to have regard to the overall cap on numbers. Schools had been advised to make applications to the NCSE for SNA support for the 2012-13 school year by 16 March 2012 and they are being notified of their allocations based on the number of valid applications received and the extent of the care needs of qualifying children. In determining the level of SNA support allocated to a school the NCSE takes into account the individual care needs of all qualifying children, supports freed up owing to school leavers and the identified care needs of newly enrolled children with special educational needs.

It is important to note that a school's allocation of SNA support may alter from year to year as pupils enrol or leave or where a child's care needs have diminished over time. As there have been no reductions in the overall number of SNAs available for allocation in the coming school year, no school will lose SNAs because of cuts. Changes to the allocation of SNAs to a school, therefore, will arise because either the number of qualifying children has changed owing to pupils enrolling or leaving a school or because the assessed needs of the qualifying children have changed, for example, where pupils may have developed increased independence. In a small number of cases schools may have had surplus SNAs who were not removed when children left school or needs changed. In such cases the NCSE will adjust the allocation to the schools to reflect the needs of the children enrolled.

The NCSE has confirmed that the SNA allocation for the school in question for the 2012-13 academic year reflects the level of care needs identified in the qualifying applications and represents a sufficient level of support to cater for the care needs of all qualifying children for the coming school year. I understand the NCSE has been in contact with the Deputy in recent days to clarify the position in this regard.

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