Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Question 99: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her Department will accord recognition to all Down's syndrome children as having specific learning disabilities, thus providing an automatic entitlement for them to a minimum number of learning support hours; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10102/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has put in place a range of teaching and care supports for pupils with special educational needs, including those with Down's syndrome.

Pupils with Down's syndrome may receive additional teaching support in school from either the additional supports provided to schools under general allocation system for children with high incidence special needs or through an allocation of further teaching supports where the child has been assessed as being within one of the low incidence categories of special educational need.

The general allocation system allocated resource teaching supports to schools in line with their enrolments. This has enabled schools to provide additional support for children with high incidence special needs such as mild general learning disability without the need for an individual assessment in each case. Each school determines the pupils with high incidence special education and learning support needs who will receive this support. Research shows that some pupils with special needs will respond better with one-to-one tuition. Others do better when taught in small groups.

Additional teaching supports are allocated to schools where they have enrolled a pupil with a low incidence special educational need. The number of additional teaching hours allocated ranges from three to five hours per week depending on the pupil's special educational needs including the level of general learning disability. Applications for such support are made through the local Special Educational Needs Organiser (SENO) by the school. The NCSE operates within the policy parameters outlined in my Department's circulars in allocating these supports.

I have no plans to extend the current criteria for low incidence special educational needs to include all children with Down's syndrome.