Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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137. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 681 of 15 April 2015, if a more comprehensive reply will issue as the question in relation to the particular school (details supplied) in County Galway was never addressed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15933/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that, in primary schools, additional teaching supports for pupils with special education needs are provided through two channels.

Under the terms of the General Allocation Model (GAM) of teaching supports, schools are resourced to cater for pupils whose educational psychological assessment places them in the high incidence, or less complex, disability category. All mainstream Primary schools have been allocated additional teaching resources under the GAM to cater for children with high incidence special educational needs.

Details of the GAM allocation which has been made schools for coming 2015/16 school year, including the school referred to by the Deputy, are set out in DEC Circular 05/2015.

Separately, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) allocates additional resource teaching hours to schools for children who have been assessed within the low incidence, or more complex, category of special need, as defined by my Department's Circular Sp Ed 02/05. The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of Special Education supports and the staffing resources available to my Department.

All schools have been asked to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching support for the 2015/16 school year by 18th March, 2015.

The allocation of resource teaching support for pupils with low incidence special educational need which will be made to the school referred to by the Deputy for the 2015/16 school year will be dependent on the number of qualifying applications for support received by the NCSE.

The NCSE will consider all applications which have been made by schools, following which allocations will be made to qualifying schools. The NCSE expects to notify schools of their resource teaching allocations for September 2015 before the end of the current school year.