Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the review of special needs assistants for the schools in Shankill, Dublin will be carried out; the reason the wait has been so long; and the reason the planned visit of the special education needs organiser for week beginning 17 October 2011 was cancelled. [32147/11]

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 organisation of school visits is a local matter between school management authorities and SENOs. I have arranged for the information provided by the Deputy to be forwarded to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply in this regard. 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 and has 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.