Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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509. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the commencement date and capacity for an autism unit for a school (details supplied) in Dublin 9. [5314/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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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 to schools to support students with special educational needs, including autism.

It is also the role of the NCSE to make appropriate arrangements to establish special classes in schools in various geographical areas as required and where an identified need for such classes exists. In this regard, where schools indicate that they will open a special class, the SENO will sanction the establishment of this class. A full list of special classes is available on the NCSE website www.ncse.ie.

As the matter referred to in this question relates to an individual school, I have referred this question to the NCSE for their consideration and direct reply to the Deputy.