Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent)
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478. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will review the case of a person (details supplied) who requires a special needs assistant, SNA; and the process for accessing an SNA for preschool children. [32553/16]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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The Deputy has asked specifically about the provision of a Special Needs Assistant. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs does not fund these services which are provided by the Department of Education and Skills.

However, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM), which is a new programme of supports to enable children with a disability to access and fully participate in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme, was introduced in June 2016 and is administered by Pobal on behalf of my Department. The degree of support provided depends on the needs of the child in the context of the pre-school service. Further information is available at . At present the scheme covers the ECCE programme only. As the Early Start Programme falls under the remit of the Minister for Education and Skills, I have brought the matter to the attention of that Department and asked if officials could respond directly.

The Early Start centres funded by DES are staffed by primary school teachers and a child care assistant also works with each group. This teacher-led staffing arrangement and comparatively favourable staff to child ratio is intended to support a range of special educational needs associated with concentrated disadvantage. However, no SNA allocation is provided until the child is enrolled in junior infants.  The Special Education Support Service (SESS), also provides access to supports and teacher training that will help teachers in Early Start centres to support students with special educational needs.