Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 118: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to redeploy special needs assistants who have been made redundant; if so; if he will set out the process for such deployment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35090/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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It is important to note that Special Needs Assistant (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. The recruitment and deployment of SNAs within schools are matters for the individual Principal/Board of Management. The Board is the SNA's employer and the terms of employment are subject to the conditions of the contract of employment. There are presently no plans to introduce a panel system for SNAs. However, the Deputy will be aware that my Department has recently published a Value for Money (VFM) and Policy Analysis review of the Special Needs Assistant scheme. This review is available on my Departments website: www.education.ie.

The Value for Money review recommended that the Department of Education and Skills should consider conducting a cost benefit analysis, to establish if the introduction of a regional redeployment scheme for SNAs would lead to greater economic efficiency. It also recommended that alternative employment models for SNAs that could achieve greater administrative efficiencies and provide greater employment certainty for SNAs should be considered by the DES. My Department has established a working group which will consider and implement the recommendations of the SNA Value for Money report.

In the interim, a Special Needs Assistant whose post is surplus to the approved allocation to the school may be entitled to a redundancy payment under the terms of circular 58/2006 - titled Redundancy Arrangements for Special Need Assistants. Support to SNAs who may have been made redundant is provided for within the terms of this scheme.