Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 468: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if additional resource hours will be provided for a person (details supplied) in County Sligo; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23472/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education, NCSE which was established recently and which has been operational since 1 January 2005 is responsible for processing applications for special educational needs, SEN, supports. Some 71 special educational needs organisers, SENOs, have been recruited throughout the country and are a focal point of contact for schools and parents. My officials have been advised by the NCSE that the local SENO has processed the application for resource teaching support for the pupil referred to by the Deputy. The pupil in question has been sanctioned 3.5 individual resource teaching hours. The school authorities were notified accordingly on 22 June 2005.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 469: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will provide additional special needs assistance support to a school (details supplied) in County Roscommon; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23475/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, special needs assistants, SNAs, are assigned to schools to meet the care needs of individual children who have been assessed by a psychologist as needing this type of support. Applications for SNA support are now dealt with by the National Council for Special Education which processes all applications for support from schools and communicate the decisions directly to the schools. At this stage, the council has dealt with all new applications from schools for SNAs that will be required from the beginning of September 2005.

However, in order to ensure that resources are used in the most effective manner, a review has been conducted in recent months to establish whether primary schools have the level of SNA support that they need for children in their care, whether they have resources which they no longer need or whether they need extra resources.

The review has found that some schools no longer have the care needs for which the SNA was originally sanctioned, that is, in some cases the child may have left the school while in other cases the care needs of the child have diminished as the child has progressed through the school. In this regard, the schools where surplus SNA support was identified have been advised that they may retain this surplus until the end of the current school year.

A review of SNAs support has recently been completed in the school referred to by Deputy. The review determined that the appropriate level of SNA support in the school in question is two full-time SNA posts. This information was communicated to the school authorities on 13 June 2005.

The three pupils referred to in the correspondence to the Deputy dated 2 June 2005 will each have access to full time SNA support within the classroom setting and also in the playground. My Department officials and the local SENO have discussed the matter with the school authorities since the letter issued to the Deputy.

I am anxious to ensure that special education support services are properly targeted at the children who require them and that the substantially increased resources being made available in the special educational area have the desired effect of ensuring that all children assessed as having special needs receive the support they require.

The Deputy will be aware that this Government has put in place an unprecedented level of support for children with special needs. Since 1998, the number of SNAs has increased from fewer than 300 to more than 6,300 nationally. In addition to this, more effective systems, such as the establishment of the National Council for Special Education, have been put in place to ensure that children get support as early as possible.