Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will ensure that the special needs assistant is approved in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Donegal. [32565/11]

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.

I wish to clarify for the Deputy the distinction between the role of the SNA and that of the teacher. SNAs and teachers have separate yet complementary roles. The class teacher is responsible for educating all pupils in his/her class, including any pupil with a special educational need. In this task, the teacher may be supported by a learning support teacher and/or resource teacher. SNAs are allocated to schools to enable them to support pupils with disabilities who also have significant care needs.

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 school referred to by the Deputy has an allocation of 4 SNA posts.

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.