Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a special needs assistant will be provided for a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37153/11]

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, including the school referred to by the Deputy, of their SNA allocation for the current school year, taking into account the care needs of qualifying pupils attending the school. The NCSE recently published statistical information on SNA allocations on a county by county and school by school basis on its website www.ncse.ie. I have arranged for Deputy's question regarding an individual application for SNA support to be forwarded to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply.