Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding a special care assistant in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47967/12]

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 processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support. 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 were advised to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2012/13 school year by 16th March, 2012. All schools, including the school referred to by the Deputy, have now been advised by the NCSE of their SNA staffing allocation for the current school year. Details of the allocations which have been made to each school are available at www.ncse.ie.

The NCSE allocates a level of SNA support for each school annually taking into account the care needs of all of the qualifying children enrolled in the school. SNAs should then be deployed by schools 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. Where schools have enrolled new pupils with special educational needs who were not considered at the time that the allocations for the 2012/13 school year were made, or where schools are in a position to demonstrate that they cannot cater for the care needs of qualifying children from the level of SNA support which has been assigned to them, they may apply to the NCSE for additional SNA support or for a review of their SNA allocation.

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.