Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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525. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills why the resource hours of a person (details supplied) were withdrawn at the start of this school year and if these will be re-instated for the coming school year. [43957/15]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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526. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills why a person with multiple special needs (details supplied) in Dublin 22 was not allocated a special needs assistant at the start of this school year and if she will consider providing this allocation to the person for the coming school year. [43958/15]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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527. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the process by which persons with multiple diagnoses are assessed for resource hours or special needs assistants and if a person with the following diagnoses (details supplied) in Dublin 22 will be allocated resource hours or a special needs assistant on the grounds of the multiple diagnosis. [43959/15]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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533. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of an appeal by a person (details supplied) in Dublin 22 against the withdrawal of resource hours for the current school year and why the original deciding officer is overseeing the appeal despite this being in contravention of the National Council for Special Education rules. [44031/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 525 to 527, inclusive, and 533 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.

The criteria in relation to the allocation of resource teaching hours to support pupils with special educational needs in primary schools is sent out in my Departments Circular SP ED 02/05

It is important to note that each school's allocation of SNA support can change from year to year and may be increased or decreased as students who qualify for SNA support enrol or leave a school. New students with care needs may, or may not, enrol to replace students who have left, for example, or SNA allocations may be decreased where a child's care needs have diminished over time.

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.

In relation to resource teaching support, resource teaching support is provided for pupils with special educational needs in primary schools, either through the schools General Allocation Model, or through an additional allocation to the school by the NCSE to support a low incidence special educational need, as set out in Sp Ed 02/05.

All schools were asked to apply for SNA and Resource Teaching 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 allocations made to schools for the 2015/16 school year on its website.

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.

As these questions relate to an allocation for an individual child, and also to the manner in which the NCSE has operated its appeal process, I will arrange to have these matters referred to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply to the Deputy.