Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 154: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a person (details supplied) in County Wexford does not have access to learning support or remedial teaching although the report of an educational psychologist clearly indicates that consistent learning support will be required for the remainder of this person's primary education; the reason learning support is not available to this person; if learning support can now be provided for them; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15236/04]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's records show that the school referred to by the Deputy currently has the services of a shared learning support teacher.

In 2000, as part of my Department's reading initiative, learning support guidelines were provided to all schools and were aimed at ensuring that all children achieve appropriate levels of literacy and numeracy during the course of their primary education. The learning support guidelines recommend high levels of co-operation between class teachers, learning support teachers and parents in supporting children who are experiencing learning difficulties.

In selecting pupils for remedial education, priority should be given to those pupils who achieve scores at or below the tenth percentile. In order to allow for measurement error, consideration may be given to selecting pupils who achieve scores up to and including the 12th percentile. Once schools are satisfied that the needs of pupils who have very low achievement or serious learning difficulties have been met, a limited degree of flexibility may be exercised in the deployment of the learning support teacher.

The principal teacher has overall responsibility for the school's learning support programme and for the operation of services for children with special educational needs. The Deputy may be interested to know that my Department is at present reviewing existing arrangements for the allocation of special educational supports to primary schools. In that context, my officials have been involved in on-going discussions on a weighted system of resource allocation with representative interests. At this stage it would be premature to anticipate the outcome for the school in question. I can confirm, however, that the basic purpose of that review is to ensure that each school has the level of resources required to cater for its pupils with special educational needs.