Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the level of funding which has been provided to the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, in each of the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011; if he will provide details on the interaction and structures in place between him and the NCSE in terms of the delivery of special needs education in Ireland; if the NCSE has been instructed not to allocate any new resources to children with special needs as this is a concern of many parents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6958/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department has provided funding to the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) as follows: €8,515,000 in 2007, €8,219,671.50 in 2008, €9,250,000 in 2009, €9,652,000 in 2010 and €2,254,000 to date in 2011.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) was established under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, 2004 (EPSEN Act) in 2005. The NCSE, through its regional Special Educational Needs Organisers, has responsibility for processing resource applications for children with disabilities who have special educational needs, at primary and post primary level in accordance with policy parameters established by the Department of Education and Skills (DES). The NCSE also responsibility for planning and co-ordinating the provision of education and support services for students with special educational needs, in accordance with DES policy.

The NSCE is continuing to allocate resources for children who have special educational needs. The NCSE recently issued a circular to all schools advising of the SNA allocation process for the 2011/2012 school year. A key feature of the amended scheme will be to provide for an annual allocation of SNA support to eligible schools. The NCSE are considering applications for additional SNA support in the context of this process for the 2011/12 school year. Schools are currently engaging with the NCSE in this regard ahead of the next school year and the NCSE will review the SNA staffing requirements for schools, taking into account all of the students who will be attending school from September next and any new students that the school are intending to enrol.

The NCSE is also continuing to process applications for Assistive Technology support and school transport for children with special educational needs. With regard to the allocation of resource teaching hours, the DES has requested the NCSE to provide data on the numbers and rate of application for additional resource teaching hours to date this year so that this information can be considered in the context of the Departments Employment Control Framework obligations.

The NCSE has also been asked to pause sanctioning additional resource teaching support hours to allow for collection and consideration of this data by the DES, in conjunction with the NCSE. It should be noted that this is a temporary suspension of the allocation process in order to allow for consideration and analysis of this issue prior to any decisions being made. In the interim, children who are eligible for resource/ learning support teaching will receive this tuition through the existing learning support provision in schools, either through the General Allocation Model or existing Learning Support provisions.