John Browne
Ceist:68 Mr. Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny) asked the Minister for Health the conditions whereby the Health Board can appoint childcare assistants to schools under the Child Care Act.
Written Answers. - Child Care Assistants.
The appointment of childcare or special needs assistants to schools is primarily a matter for my colleague the Minister for Education and there is no specific provision in the Child Care Act for health Boards to make such appointments.
The recent report of the Special Education Review Committee recommended that additional special needs assistant posts funded by the Department of Education should be created in both special and ordinary schools. Specific appointment ratios for special needs assistants were recommended in the report for 12 categories of children with special needs. I am pleased to say that an additional 50 childcare assistants posts have recently been sanctioned by the Minister for Education. I understand that these posts will be allocated to selected schools from September 1994.