Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 819: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when a special needs assistant support will be provided at a school (details supplied) in County Louth for a person who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; and when this person will have access to an occupational therapist. [10070/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to advise the Deputy that my Department has approved full-time special needs assistant support for the school in question to cater for this and another pupil's care needs. A letter of confirmation was issued to the school on 18 March 2005.

With regard to the matter of access to an occupational therapist, the Health Act 2004 provided for the Health Service Executive, which was established on 1 January 2005. Under the Act, the HSE has the responsibility to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. This includes responsibility for the provision of occupational therapy services. Accordingly, the Department of Health and Children has requested the chief officer for the Health Service Executive's north-eastern area to investigate the matter raised and to reply directly to the Deputy.

Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 820: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the details of a meeting with a school group (details supplied) in County Limerick. [10071/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I take it that the Deputy is referring to concerns in the school group's area regarding the proposed model of resource allocations for pupils in the high incidence disability categories.

In light of the reality that pupils in the high incidence disability categories of mild and borderline mild general learning disability and dyslexia are distributed throughout the education system, my Department, in consultation with educational interests, developed a general model of resource teacher allocation to schools to support students in these disability categories. This model, which was announced by my predecessor in 2004 to come into effect from September 2005, was designed to put in place a permanent resource in primary schools to cater for pupils in these categories.

The model was constructed so that allocations would be based on pupil numbers, taking into account the differing needs of the most disadvantaged schools and the evidence that boys have greater difficulties than girls in this regard.

The advantages of using a general allocation model are as follows: it facilitates early intervention as the resource is in place in the school when the child enrols; it reduces the need for individual applications and supporting psychological assessments; it puts resources in place on a more systematic basis, thereby giving schools more certainty about their resource levels; it gives more security to special education teaching posts and makes special education teaching a more attractive option; it allows flexibility to school management in the deployment of resources, leading to a more effective and efficient delivery of services; and it will automatically adjust a school's general allocation on the basis of changing enrolment.

I have made it clear that while I am in favour of using a general allocation model for the reasons I have just given, I am conscious of the particular difficulties that the model announced last year could cause for small and rural schools if implemented as originally announced. For this reason I have asked the Department to conduct a review of the model announced last year. The review will be completed in the coming weeks and its outcome will be announced in time to be implemented for the next school year.