Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2012
298. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding an embargo on the employment of special needs assistants; and if he will review the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47618/12]
View answerI wish to clarify for the Deputy that there is no embargo on the employment of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) or on the filling of SNA posts.
A total of 10,575 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) SNA posts have been made available for allocation to schools by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) throughout the current school year, subject to qualifying applications being received.
The NCSE is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including SNA support. The NCSE operates within my Department's established criteria for the allocation of such supports and the staffing resources available to my Department.
All schools were advised to apply to the NCSE for resource teaching and SNA support for the 2012/13 school year by 16 March, 2012. All schools, including the school referred to by the Deputy, have now been advised by the NCSE of their SNA staffing allocation for the current school year. Details of the allocations which have been made to each school are available at www.ncse.ie.
To date, the NCSE has allocated 10,311 WTE SNA posts to schools based on the number of valid applications received and the extent of the care needs of qualifying children. The remaining 264 posts are available for allocation throughout the school year for new assessments of disability, new entrants, or emergency or late applications, in accordance with the terms of the SNA scheme. The NCSE has estimated that based on the experience of last year, that these 264 posts should be sufficient to meet demand during the school year.
Where schools have enrolled new pupils with special educational needs who were not considered at the time that the allocations for the 2012/13 school year were made, or where schools are in a position to demonstrate that they cannot cater for the care needs of qualifying children from the level of SNA support which has been assigned to them, they may apply to the NCSE for additional SNA support or for a review of their SNA allocation.
All schools have the names and contact details of their local SENO. 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.
The NCSE has advised my Department that it has not received an application from the school concerned for SNA support for the pupil in question.
