Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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234. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to change the qualifying criteria for July provision to include children with Down's syndrome regardless of their IQ; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17520/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that July Provision is available to all special schools and mainstream primary schools with special classes catering for children with autism that choose to extend their education services through the month of July. My Department also provides July Provision for pupils with a severe/profound general learning disability. Where school based provision is not feasible, home based provision may be grant aided. It is not proposed at this time to extend the July Provision scheme to further disability categories.

The NCSE is currently preparing policy advice on the education of children with autism which will include a review of the July Provision programme. I expect that the final report, which is to be delivered at an unspecified date in the Spring of 2015, will consider the broadest possible range of views and provide recommendations which will assist the development of policy for future years.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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235. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether children with Down's syndrome should be entitled to special needs assistants in school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17522/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department allocates significant resources to ensure that pupils with special educational needs, including pupils with Down syndrome, can participate fully in education. The policy of my Department is that children with special educational needs should be included in mainstream placements with additional supports provided. In circumstances where children with special educational need require more specialised interventions, special school or special class places are also available. Pupils who have care needs, including pupils with Down syndrome, may receive access to Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support in schools. Many children with Down syndrome have access to such SNA support.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), 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 criteria by which SNA support is allocated to pupils is set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014. The NCSE invited schools to make applications for SNA support for children who have assessed care needs for the coming 2014/15 school year by 26th March 2014, for their consideration. Details of the NCSE application criteria are available at www.ncse.ie.

Although the date for applications has passed, if the school wish to make an application for SNA support for a child who has assessed care needs, and has not done so to date, they should still submit an application for SNA support to the NCSE and this will be considered by the NCSE. 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.