Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 408: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will review the resource teaching hours approved for a child (details supplied) in County Kilkenny with a view to having the number of hours increased considerably in view of the child's speech and language difficulties. [18575/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the National Council for Special Education is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers, for allocating resource teachers and special needs assistants to schools to support children with special needs. I have arranged for the details supplied by the Deputy to be forwarded to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply.

All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.

The NCSE will review a decision taken by a special educational needs organiser (SENO) on foot of a request from a school or parents/ guardians, when accompanied by relevant additional information, which may not have been to hand at the time of the decision. The NCSE has outlined this process in its Circular 01/05.

The provision of therapy services including speech and language therapy is a matter for the Health Services Executive (HSE) and funding is provided to the HSE for such purposes.