Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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150. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will allocate a resource teacher to a school (details supplied) in County Kerry. [2412/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The criteria used for the allocation of teachers to primary schools is published annually on the website of the Department of Education and Skills. Staffing Circular 0005/2015 which is available on the Department website sets out the staffing arrangements for primary schools for the 2015/16 school year and includes the allocation process for schools to meet their NCSE approved resource hour requirements. The staffing and redeployment arrangements for all schools for the 2016/17 school year will be published shortly. 82% of all NCSE approved resource teaching hours in the 2015/16 school year were allocated to schools that had permanent resource base posts. Schools with less than 25 resource hours (a full-time post) can join with neighbouring schools to form a cluster of 25 hours, with a temporary post being based in one of these schools for the 2015/16 school year. The school referred to by the Deputy was approved for one full-time permanent base resource post and one temporary shared post for the current 2015/16 school year.

The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has recommended the introduction of a new resource allocation model for schools, which will allow schools to allocate resources to pupils taking into account their individual learning needs, as opposed to being based primarily on a diagnosis of a particular disability. It is also designed to factor in the educational profile of the student cohort in the school. A pilot of this new resource allocation model is currently taking place in a number of schools.