Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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442. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills why she has refused an application for resource hours by a person (details supplied) in County Galway; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7769/16]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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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 teaching hours to schools to support children with special educational needs.

The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support, which is set out in Spec Ed Circular 02/05.

All schools were asked to apply for SNA or resource teaching support for the 2016/17 school year by 29th February 2016. The NCSE continues to accept applications after this date in recognition that enrolments may not have been completed or where assessments were not completed.

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.

Details of the manner in which a school, or parent, may appeal a resource teaching allocation decision is also available at www.ncse.ie

As the question raised by the Deputy relates to an application for support for an individual child, I have arranged for this question to be forwarded to the NCSE for direct reply to the Deputy.