Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Question 36: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way a parent of a child with reduced access to a special need assistant or has completely lost access to an SNA can make a review application or appeal the decision when the provision of SNA's is actually given to the school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28696/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy 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 established criteria for the allocation of such supports and the staffing resources available to my Department.

All schools had been advised to apply to the NCSE for SNA support for the 2012/13 school year by 16th March, 2012 and schools will be notified shortly by their local SENO of their SNA allocation for 2012/13, based on the number of valid applications received and the extent of the care needs of qualifying children.

The recruitment and deployment of SNAs within schools are matters for the individual Principal/Board of Management. SNAs should be deployed by the school in a manner which best meets the care support requirements of the children enrolled in the school for whom SNA support has been allocated. It is a matter for schools to allocate support as required, and on the basis of individual need, which allows schools flexibility in how the SNA support is utilised.

All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. Parents may also contact their local SENO directly to discuss their child's special educational needs, using the contact details available on www.ncse.ie.

Finally, I wish to advise the Deputy that the NCSE is developing an appeals process which is intended to be in place for the 2012/13 school year.