Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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930. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if funding will be provided for additional special needs assistants at a school (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41998/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating a quantum of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school. Where children have significant care needs whereby they may need additional support to be able to attend school, the NCSE may make an allocation of SNA support to the school to assist that child.

The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support. The criteria by which SNA support is allocated to pupils is set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014.

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. 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.

Should a school wish to make an application for additional SNA support for a child who was not previously considered for SNA support, or who is due to enrol to a school, they may do so to 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.

Details of the manner by which school may appeal its SNA allocation are available at www.ncse.ie.

Finally, I wish to advise the Deputy that my Government committed, as part of the budget announcements which were recently made, to provide 365 new Special Needs Assistant posts to support children with special educational needs in schools in 2015.

This increase is additional to the increase of 390 posts which this Government announced in December 2013, which had raised the previous cap from 10,575 available posts to 10,965 posts.

This Government has been resolutely committed to protecting, and in some instances increasing, the level of investment being made to support children with special educational needs at a time when there has been a requirement to make expenditure reductions across a range of areas. It is an area of spending which has been prioritised above most other areas by this Government, despite the enormous pressures on all areas of public spending.