Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 185: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a school's (details supplied) applications and appeals in respect of special needs assistants and resource hours will be decided by the National Council for Special Education; if he will provide a timeframe for when parents, teachers and pupils can expect to hear the result of their applications and appeals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31385/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. This now includes a requirement for the NCSE to have regard to an overall cap on the number of SNA posts. The NCSE has now advised all mainstream schools of their SNA allocation for the current school year, taking into account the care needs of qualifying pupils attending the school. The school in question has currently been allocated 1 full time SNA post and 86.4 Resource Teacher hours The NCSE has recently published statistical information in relation to the allocation of SNA posts and resource teaching hours to Primary Special and Post Primary Schools. The information is provided on a county by county and school by school basis on its website at www.ncse.ie. The NCSE has a retained capacity to respond to emergency cases, or where additional care needs arise for schools as a result of new school enrolments, injuries or diagnoses, during the school year, in the context of existing SNA provision in the school. The NCSE will advise schools in the near future of a process to review allocation decisions to ensure that correct procedures were followed and that they comply with my Department's policy. The merits of individual allocation decisions will not be open to appeal under this mechanism. In relation to the allocation of individual Resource Teaching hours, the position is that for the 2011/12 school year, an allocation of 90% of valid identified resource teaching allocations has been made by the NCSE to schools, including the school referred to by the Deputy, in the first instance, to provide schools with the majority of their allocation, while also preserving enough capacity to deal with late applications and ensure that my Department remains within Employment Control Framework obligations. Schools have now been asked to forward any outstanding applications, or additional outstanding materials to support incomplete applications, to the NCSE for consideration. Consideration is currently being given as to whether there is potential to revise the 90% allocation previously given to schools, and also the extent to which new Resource Teaching allocations can be made, taking into account the number of valid new applications received and in the context of my Departments Employment Control Framework obligations.