Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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650. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of special needs assistants and school secretaries employed in counties Westmeath and Longford. [29643/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that I recently announced that I had secured Government approval for an additional 610 Special Needs Assistant (SNA) posts which may be made available for allocation to schools to support children with special educational needs with assessed care needs.

From the beginning of September, there will be 11,820 whole time equivalent SNA posts available in schools to support children with special educational needs with assessed care needs. This is the highest level of SNA allocation that we have ever had and builds on the increases of 365 additional SNA posts provided for in last year's budget announcement and the 390 additional SNA posts announced in December 2013. In total there has been an increase of 11.7% in SNA posts available for allocation to schools since this Government came to office.

These extra posts will ensure that the Government's policy of ensuring that every child who is assessed as needing SNA support will receive access to such support.

I wish to advise the Deputy also that the National Council for Special Education(NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) for allocating SNA support for each school annually taking into account the assessed care needs of children qualifying for SNA support enrolled in the school.

The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support which are set out in my Department's Circular 0030/2014.

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, which are available to view on a per county basis. The listing indicates that a total of 304 SNAs have been allocated to schools in Counties Longford and Westmeath for the coming school year.

Finally, I wish to advise the Deputy that my Department does not gather information in relation to the number of secretaries employed by schools.

The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools in the Free Education Scheme now receive capitation grant assistance to provide for secretarial (and/or caretaking) services. Within the capitation grant schemes, it is a matter for each individual school to decide how best to apply the grant funding to suit its particular needs and the Department does not stipulate how secretarial services are to be obtained. Where a school uses the grant funding to employ a secretary, such staff are employees of individual schools.