Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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269. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will outline the request for extra special needs assistants she and her Department have received from a special school (details supplied) in County Cork; the allocation the school has now received; if the school is satisfied with its allocation for 2015-2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29316/15]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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270. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she or her Department have received a request for a special needs assistant for a pupil (details supplied) who has many challenging behaviours, as well as autism, and who is attending a school in County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29317/15]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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271. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the justification for allocating only two new special needs assistants for 12 children in a special school (details supplied) in County Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29318/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 269 to 271, inclusive, together.

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 resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs.

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.

Once allocated, the deployment of SNAs within schools is then 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.

All schools were asked to apply for SNA support for the 2015/16 school year by 18th March 2015. The NCSE also continued to accept applications after this date in recognition that enrolments may not have been completed or where assessments were not completed.

The NCSE has now published details of SNA allocations for schools for September 2015 on its website.

The NCSE has confirmed to my Department that the SNA allocation for the school in question for the 2015/16 school year provides a sufficient level of support to cater for the care needs of all qualifying children in the context of the applications received for 2015/16.

Details of the manner in which a school or parent may appeal the level of SNA or resource teaching allocation which has been made to support a child in school, to the NCSE, is set out at www.ncse.ie.

All schools have the contact details of their local SENO, while 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.