Brian Walsh (Galway West, Independent)
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963. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider the allocation of an additional alleviation post in respect of a primary school (details supplied) in County Galway in view of the increase in enrolment at the school; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21707/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The principle of inclusion is at the core of the Report and Recommendations for a Traveller Education Strategy published in 2006 and, accordingly, the focus of both current and future provision is on the development of a more inclusive school environment. In keeping with this principle, additional resources provided in the education system are allocated on the basis of identified individual educational need rather than that of ethnic or cultural background.

Since the 2012/13 school year, all Traveller pupils who had previously been supported by Resource Teacher for Traveller (RTT) posts are now included in the enrolments which are counted for GAM allocation purposes. This is in keeping with the policy of inclusion and the 2006 report.

Limited alleviation measures were put in place to assist schools who had high concentrations of Traveller pupils, in the context of limited resources available.

The General Allocation Model (GAM), which provides additional resource teaching, learning support, and English Additional Language support for all primary schools, is now updated annually based on the number of mainstream teaching posts in each school and in order to take account of updated enrolments.

Details of the GAM allocation process, and of GAM allocations for each school for the coming 2015/16 school year, are set out in DES Circular 05/2015, which is available on my Department's website at www.education.ie.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) also 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.

The NCSE has published details of the resource teaching allocations which will be made to each individual school for 2015/16 school year, on the NCSE website ncse.ie.

However, the NCSE will also have a second round allocation process to respond to late enrolments, or from diagnosed disabilities emerging after the closing date for the first allocation round, to the start of the new school year.

Schools who wish to make applications to the NCSE under the second round allocation process for additional resources to cater for children who have been assessed as having low incidence special educational needs, should submit such applications to the NCSE.