Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 210: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will lift the embargo on the sanctioning of extra resource hours. [3717/12]

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 to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. All schools have now received their resource teaching allocations for the current school year, based on the number of valid applications for resource teaching support received by the NCSE to 25th November, 2011, and taking into account my Department's Employment Control Framework obligations which limits the number of overall resource teaching posts which may be allocated to schools.

Applications for resource teaching hours received after 25th November, 2011, will be processed by the NCSE in the context of the 2012/13 school year applications process. In the interim, schools should support pupils for whom new applications are being made from their existing resource teaching allocations, until revised allocations are made for the September 2012 school year. Where a pupil meets the criteria for Resource Teaching support, following diagnosis or enrolment to a school which does not have any existing allocation of resource teaching support, the NCSE may make an allocation for such pupils from the small pool of remaining posts which have been reserved for such emergencies or eventualities.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 211: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will allow flexibility in the allocation of resource teachers in order that allocation is based on the projected needs of schools on 1 September 2012 enrolment rather than 31 December 2011. [3718/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the deputy that over 1,600 primary schools throughout the country will be identified as base schools for about 2,450 full-time resource teaching posts. The aim is to have a good geographic spread of full-time resource posts in base schools so that the teachers in these full-time permanent posts are in place to undertake the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) approved resource hours for pupils with low incidence special needs either in these base schools, or in neighbouring schools.

The base schools will be selected on the basis of the number of NCSE resource hours approved for each school for the current 2011/12 school year, as at 31 December 2011, and in accordance with the criteria set out by my Departments. However, schools will make their applications for resource teaching support to the NCSE for the coming September and will receive an actual resource teaching allocation from the NCSE, based on the number of valid applications received. The actual resource teaching hours allocated to schools for the coming year will therefore be based on the number of valid applications received for support by the NCSE for September, regardless of where base posts are located.

Schools will then be able to enter into sharing arrangements for the filling of allocated hours and schools that are unable to have their NCSE approved resource hours met from the network of full-time resource only posts will be allocated mainly part-time temporary posts. The list of base schools for the resource posts will be reviewed regularly to ensure that it reflects the needs of newly established and rapidly developing schools.