James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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409. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of appeals upheld in respect of special needs assistants in each of the past five years, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46744/17]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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410. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of appeals not upheld in respect of special needs assistants in each of the past five years, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46745/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 409 and 410 together.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE), which is an independent statutory agency, is responsible, through its network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including SNA support. The NCSE allocates such support to schools in accordance with the criteria set out in my Department’s Circular 0030/2014, which is available on my Department's website at www.education.ie. 

The NCSE advised all schools of their allocations for SNA support. Details of SNA allocations which have been made to schools for the 2017/18 school year are available on the NCSE website at www.ncse.ie.  

The NCSE Appeals Process may be invoked in the following instances:

- a parent or a school where it is considered that a child was not granted access to SNA support on the grounds that Department policy was not met in accordance with Circular0030/2014.

- a school may also appeal a decision, where the school considers that the NCSE, in applying Department policy, has not allocated the appropriate level of SNA supports to the school to meet the special educational and/or care needs of the child(ren) concerned.

Appeals are processed by the NCSE and all correspondence and queries in relation to same should be addressed to the NCSE. Information in relation to the number of appeals upheld and/or not upheld are a matter for the NCSE. Accordingly I have forwarded the Deputy's query to the NCSE for direct reply.