I can assure the Deputy that I am aware of the staffing difficulties to which he refers. I am currently in discussion with my colleague, the Minister for Finance, on this and other staffing issues currently arising in my Department. My objective is to ensure that all requests for special education services are responded to as speedily as possible and that the children in question receive the support to which they are entitled without undue delay.
The Deputy will be aware that in November 1998, I announced a major new initiative in the special education area under which all children assessed as having special educational needs are now entitled to an automatic response to those needs. The response may take the form of full-time teaching or child care support, or both, depending on the number of children involved and their special needs. In the context of this new development, my Department has received a substantial number of applications from schools for resource teacher and/or special needs assistant support for pupils with special needs.
To date, as a result of this development, my Department has received approximately 800 applications for special needs assistant support and 580 applications for resource teaching support.
A total of 386 special needs assistant posts have been sanctioned since January 1999 to provide support for individual pupils attending mainstream and special schools. These special needs assistant posts are sanctioned on either a full or part-time basis depending on the special needs of the pupils in question.
Over the same period, a total of 62 full-time resource posts have been sanctioned. A further 1,423 part-time resource teaching hours has been sanctioned for individual children or small groups of special needs children for whom a full-time post would not be warranted. This has resulted in an additional 200 schools having access to resource teaching services.