Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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22. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if more special needs assistants are being employed to assist with the increase in the number of children with a disability enrolling in mainstream and special schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43800/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the level of resources being devoted to supporting children with Special Educational Needs has been maintained at €1.3 billion this year. This includes provision for 10,575 Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) for allocation in the 2013/14 school year.

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, 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 2013/14 school year which is the same number of posts which were available for allocation for the 2012/13 school year. The NCSE has notified schools of their SNA allocation for 2013/14, based on the number of valid applications received and the extent of the care needs of qualifying children.

It is important to note that the level of SNAs required to support children with special educational needs changes from year to year in line with the enrolment of different children with different care needs. The care needs of individual children can also change from year to year. The NCSE takes these factors into account when allocating SNAs to schools.

To date the NCSE has allocated 10,490 WTE SNA posts to schools. Every child who meets the criteria for access to SNA support in the current school year is in receipt of this support. The remaining 85 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. Based on discussions with the NCSE, it may be the case that additional SNA posts above the figure of 10,575, may be required to respond to need for the current school year. This issue will be dealt with if and when it arises. The NCSE is still processing SNA applications for the current school year.

Schools can contact the NCSE if they have enrolled children who were not considered at the time that the SNA allocations were made, or where they are seeking a revision to the quantum of SNA support which has been allocated to them for the current school year. In general, a revision to SNA allocations will only be made in circumstances where schools have enrolled new pupils, or where schools can demonstrate that they do not have sufficient SNA posts to cater for the care needs of all of the qualifying children in their school. 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.