Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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74. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason staff at the National Council for Special Education are not responding fully to a query (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5824/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), is responsible for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including the allocation of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools. The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of Special Education supports and the staffing resources available to my Department. The NCSE has published details of all of their allocations for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2013/2014 school year on their website www.ncse.ie, which detail the allocations made for each school on a per county basis. At present, five SNAs have been approved for the school referred to by the Deputy.

I wish to clarify that the NCSE allocates a quantum of SNA support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support. The deployment of SNAs within schools is then a matter for the individual Principal/Board of Management. SNAs should be deployed by the school 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.

Schools can contact the NCSE if they have enrolled children who were not considered at the time that the revised SNA allocations were made to schools, or where they are seeking a revision to the quantum of SNA support which has been allocated to them. 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.

The Deputy's question in relation to an application for SNA support for an individual pupil was referred to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply and I understand from my officials that a response issued to the Deputy regarding this matter on 4 February 2014.