Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will clarify comments made by the National Council for Special Educational Needs in recent days in which it claimed that the hiring of 10,300 special needs assistants this year, instead of the 10,575 which were budgeted to be hired, was due to a lack of demand, if this position will be reviewed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48303/12]

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 SNA support, 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.

There are 10,575 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) SNA posts available for allocation in the 2012/13 school year, which is the same number of posts which were available for allocation for the 2011/12 school year. The NCSE initially allocated 10,311 WTE SNA posts to schools based on the number of valid applications received to date and the extent of the care needs of qualifying children. The remaining 264 posts are available for allocation throughout the school year for new assessments of disability, new entrants, or emergency or late applications, in accordance with the terms of the SNA scheme. The NCSE have estimated that based on the experience of last year, that these 264 posts should be sufficient to meet demand during the school year.

Every child who has met the criteria for access to Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support in the current school year to date is in receipt of support. In respect of new applications, the NCSE has capacity to allocate additional SNA posts throughout the school year, and will do so where valid applications are received. Where schools have enrolled new pupils with special educational needs who were not considered at the time that the initial 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.

Finally, I wish to confirm for the Deputy that this Government remains committed to protecting services for children with special educational needs. The number of SNA posts available for allocation to schools for the 2012/13 school year has been maintained, at a time when there has been a requirement to make savings across a range of expenditure areas.