Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a resource teacher has not been allocated to a school (details supplied) in County Tipperary; if his attention has been drawn to the hardship, distress and upset being caused to the affected children and their families; if he will provide a timeframe for when this post will be filled; if he will prioritise this case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54871/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The NCSE has notified all schools of their allocation of resource hours for low incidence special needs for the 2012/13 school year. The arrangements for how schools access these resource hours in teaching posts are set out in the Department Staffing Circular 0007/2012 which is available on the website. 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 will be allocated mainly temporary part-time posts. It is also open to schools to make an application for a full-time temporary resource post. The school referred to has been allocated 11.90 resource (low incidence) hours by the NCSE. The school has made arrangements through the network of base posts in place for these hours to be covered by two permanent resource teachers in neighbouring schools that have spare capacity in their posts.