John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 89: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he has any policy in relation to special needs assistants; if he will introduce a panel for SNA's who are fully qualified; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7817/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The qualifying criteria for the allocation of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support is outlined in my Department's Circular 07/02. In addition, procedures for the appointment of SNAs and details of qualifications for SNAs are set out in Departmental Circulars 05/2001 and SNA 03/2003.

It is important to note that SNA allocations are not permanent, as the level of SNA support allocated to a school may be increased or decreased as pupils who qualify for SNA support enrol or leave a school. They are also decreased where a child's care needs may have diminished over time. There are no plans to introduce a panel for SNA's.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers and SNAs to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support, which now includes a requirement for the NCSE to have regard to an overall cap on the number of SNA posts.

This number is 10,575 whole time equivalent (WTE) posts. This is a significant number of posts and unlike other areas of the public sector vacancies are being filled up to this number. It also represents continual increases in the number of SNAs over recent years. For example, there were 10,543 WTE SNA posts in place at the end of 2010 and 10,342 at end 2009.

It is considered that with equitable and careful management and distribution of these resources that there should be sufficient posts to provide access to SNA support for all children who require such care support to attend school, in accordance with Departmental criteria.

The NCSE has issued a circular to all schools advising of the 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.

My Department and I will be glad to consider any suggestions from school management or parent representative organisations as to how the allocation of SNA resources can best be managed within the context of the overall limit on SNA numbers established. In this regard I am committed to making whatever improvements are possible to the resource allocation system.