Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding an application by three County Tipperary schools for a temporary resource teacher; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50207/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The NCSE has notified all schools of their allocation for the 2012/13 school year of resource hours for low incidence special needs. The arrangements for how schools access these resource hours in teaching posts are set out in the Department Staffing Circular 0007/2012. Under these arrangements a network of over 2,500 full-time resource posts has been put in place in close to 1,700 base schools throughout the country. The list of these schools and the criteria used to select them is set out in the published circular.

These resource posts are allocated on a permanent basis and the teachers in them will undertake NCSE approved (low incidence) resource hours in the base schools or in neighbouring schools. Schools that are unable to access these hours are approved mainly for temporary part-time posts. It is also open to schools to make a joint application for a full-time temporary resource post. The schools referred to by the Deputy submitted an application for such a post. However as they did not have sufficient hours to warrant the full-time post they were each approved for part-time posts.