Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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50. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 342 of 25 March 2015, if he will provide a list of the entire range of autism specific interventions that he is referring to in his response, not including applied behaviour analysis, treatment and education of autistic communication handicapped children and picture exchange communication system. [16842/14]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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51. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide the specific peer reviewed research that supports and demonstrates the effectiveness of the treatment and education of autistic communication handicapped children approach. [16843/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 50 and 51 together.

As outlined to the Deputy previously, my Department's position is that as each child with autism is unique, they should have access to a range of different approaches to meet their individual needs with access facilitated to individualised education programmes and fully qualified professional teachers who may draw from a range of autism specific interventions. Teachers have access, through the Special Education Support Service (SESS), to continuing professional development (CPD) in a range of autism specific interventions, including those referred to in my previous response. However there is not an exhaustive list of autism specific interventions. Teachers can contact SESS directly or can access information on an ongoing basis on the SESS website www.sess.ie which includes a comprehensive calendar of CPD events.

The Deputy will be aware from my previous response that my Department's child – centred approach to the education of children with special educational needs including autism is based on advice from my Department's National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS); the Inspectorate, the report of the Irish Task Force on Autism which takes full account of advice from a range of international experts on autism, and research and reviews published by international and national experts and not just one specific piece of research.

The National Council Special Education (NCSE) is currently preparing policy advice on the education of children with autism. The Policy Advice will be delivered in the spring of 2015 and will draw upon findings gathered from an extensive consultation process which has already commenced. The advice will also draw upon the research commissioned by the NCSE as well as any other research which may be available and which the NCSE considers merits consideration. It will be open to all interested parties to contribute to the consultation process and I expect that the NCSE final report will reflect the broadest possible range of views and provide recommendations which will assist the development of policy for future years.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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52. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of hours of training that are provided to teachers and special needs assistants before they are deemed qualified to use the treatment and education of autistic communication handicapped children approach. [16844/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Deputy will be aware of this Government's ongoing commitment to ensuring that all children with special educational needs can have access to an education appropriate to their needs. I am satisfied that current arrangements are adequate to ensure that teachers receive the necessary initial education and have access to quality continuous professional development (CPD) programmes during their career so that they are in a position to meet the needs of students.

All primary teachers are qualified to teach in any primary or special school classroom. Teachers have access, through the Special Education Support Service (SESS), to continuing professional development in a range of autism specific interventions, including Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) and the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). In relation to TEACCH, SESS works with Division TEACCH, University of North Carolina, USA to provide access to teachers to either a two-day or five-day course. The two-day TEACCH course consists of 14 hours training and the five-day TEACCH course consists of 35 hours training.

I wish to advise the Deputy that SNAs and teachers have separate yet complementary roles. The class teacher is responsible for educating all pupils in his/her class, including any pupil with a special educational need. In this task, the teacher may be supported by a learning support teacher and/or resource teacher. SNAs are allocated to schools to enable them to support pupils with disabilities who also have significant care needs. The deployment of SNAs within schools is 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. If specific training is required, the board should liaise with the Health Service Executive in order to ensure that the HSE provides guidance and/or training that enables the SNA to meet the care needs of the pupil in an appropriate manner.