Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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230. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding newly allocated resource hours (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13821/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that all children who have been assessed as having a Mild General Learning Difficulty are entitled to receive additional teaching support in schools under the terms of the General Allocation Model (GAM) of teaching supports at primary level, or through a general allocation of High Incidence (HI) disability support at post primary school level.

All schools have therefore been provided with resource teaching hours to allocate to pupils with Mild General Learning Difficulty.

The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) recommended the introduction of a new resource allocation model for schools.

I recently announced that I am not proposing to change the way teachers are allocated to schools for children with Special Educational Needs for the coming school year. In taking this decision, I have been guided by the advice of the NCSE Working Group report, which recommended sufficient time be allowed for consultation before the new model is implemented.

Through consultations, there was a broad welcome for the proposed new model from Parents, disability groups, schools and stakeholders. However, there has not been sufficient time to address all of the concerns which have been raised in advance of the 2015 school year.

In the context of the recent announcement that the proposed new model for allocating resource teachers to schools will not now be introduced from September 2015, I agreed to review the particular position in relation to educational provision for children with Down syndrome in mainstream schools.

On 24th of March, I announced that the Government has agreed that additional resources will be allocated to schools, as an interim measure, to support those children with Down syndrome, who are not already supported through the National Council for Special Education's (NCSE) annual allocation process.

I advised that this measure was being introduced in recognition of the length of time it will take to introduce the new resource teacher model and the fact that children with Down syndrome experience a cluster of difficulties relating to this syndrome, in addition to general learning difficulties, including speech and language developmental delays.

As my Department is continuing to develop the new allocation model for schools, and is currently working to devise a pilot of the new model, I do not propose to amend the existing allocation process further, pending the introduction of a new allocation model.