Vol. 497 No. 2
395 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Education and Science when St. Patrick's girls' national school, Westport, County Mayo, will get a resource teacher in view of the fact that it has a sufficient amount of children with special needs. [24551/98]
396 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Education and Science the proposals, if any, he has to appoint remedial or resource teacher posts in County Waterford in 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24629/98]
401 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the fact that Keash Geevagh, Kilmactranny, Corrigeenroe and Cloghogue national schools, County Sligo, united in 1994 to acquire the services of a remedial teacher (details supplied) and have not received this service; if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that these schools are discriminated against due to the fact they are surrounded by schools which have access to a remedial service; the plans, if any, he has to put this service in place; when a teacher will be appointed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24712/98]
417 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Education and Science if he has received a joint application for a remedial teacher for four schools (details supplied) in County Cork; and if he will make immediate arrangements to have a remedial teacher appointed to these schools. [24821/98]
I propose to take Question Nos. 395, 396, 401 and 417 together.
I recently announced a major new initiative in the special education area under which all children assessed as having special educational needs will be entitled to an automatic response to those needs. The level and nature of the response in each case will depend on the assessed needs of the child or group of children involved. The response may take the form of a full or part-time teacher support or child care support depending on the number of children involved and the nature of their needs.
My Department is currently considering all applications for support, including applications from schools in counties Mayo and Waterford, in the context of this new development in special needs provision.
I expect that responses to such applications will begin to issue in the near future and continue through 1999.
I am aware of the applications for a remedial teacher service from the schools to which Deputies Perry and Creed refer.
My capacity to allocate additional remedial teacher posts in any given year is dependent on resource availability and the level of competing demand from other special needs areas. I recently allocated 60 additional remedial posts to national schools with effect from September 1998. There are now 1,302 remedial teacher posts in place in national schools.
I am continuing to review needs in this area.
In the event of additional remedial teacher posts becoming available for allocation, I can assure the Deputies that the needs of the schools to which they refer will be fully considered.
