Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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167. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which adequate facilities remain available at a school (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40847/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department provides for a continuum of special educational provision to be made available for children with special educational needs, so that regardless of the level of need of the child, educational provision can be made for them.

The extent of supports required for any child in a particular class setting or school will depend on their disability categorisation and the extent of care needs that they may have. As such, schools have access to a full range of supports to facilitate the enrolment of pupils with special educational needs.

While there is not presently a distinct disability category of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) for resource allocation purposes, such children may be receiving supports in schools via their inclusion within other disability categorisations, such as mild general learning difficulty, or a low incidence disability categorisation, while also having ADHD.

Pupils with ADHD may receive additional teaching support either under the General Allocation Model in primary schools or equivalent provision in post primary schools if their educational assessments place them in the mild general learning disability category. Schools may differentiate the level of learning support granted to ensure that available resources are used to support children in line with their needs. Pupils who are diagnosed with EBD or more complex needs as defined by the Department's Circular Sp Ed 02/05, are supported through an allocation of individual additional resource teaching hours allocated by the National Council for Special Education.

The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs and addtional care needs respectively. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.

The NCSE has completed the second round allocations for resource teaching hours and SNA provision for the 2014/15 school year. Schools who wish to make applications for SNA support for children with special educational needs for the current school year may continue to make such applications to the NCSE.

School may also make applications to the NCSE for other special educational supports such assistive technology and equipment and special transport arrangements for pupils with special educational needs.

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.