Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 276: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will consider maintaining resource teaching hours for persons (details supplied) for their first year at primary school. [21569/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, a new general allocation scheme has been announced under which schools will be provided with resource teaching hours, based on their enrolment figures, to cater for children with high incidence special needs, such as dyslexia and those with learning support needs. I wish to advise the Deputy that the local special educational needs organiser, SENO, determined that the special educational needs, SEN, of the pupils in question fall within the high incidence disability categories and their needs therefore fall to be catered for from within the school's general allocation. The general allocation for the school in question is one full-time teaching post.

It is a matter for each school to determine the pupils with high incidence special education and learning support needs that will receive this support. Each school will have enough resource teaching hours to provide its pupils with a level of support appropriate to their needs. The school can then use its professional judgement to decide how these hours are divided between different children in the school, to ensure all their needs are met. Research shows that some children with special needs will respond better with one-to-one tuition. Others do better when taught in small groups. Often, it is best for resource teachers to work with children in the classroom rather than taking them away to a separate room, as the children then have to catch up on work done by the rest of the class in their absence. The type of response needed depends on the child. I can confirm that my officials have recently received further correspondence regarding the needs of the first pupil referred to by the Deputy and this correspondence will be referred to the SENO for further consideration.