The person referred to by the Deputy was granted restricted recognition by my Department in 1999. Restricted recognition entitles a teacher to teach in special schools and classes and in resource teaching posts for children with low incidence special educational needs in mainstream schools. I understand that this person has been teaching as a resource teacher in a primary school since September 2001.
As the Deputy may be aware, my Department introduced the general allocation system for allocating resources to schools for children with learning support and high incidence special educational needs from September of this year. As the posts created under this new system, LS-RT posts, involve an element of learning support, teachers taking up such posts must be fully qualified and probated, as has always been the case for learning support posts.
However, in order to ensure that teachers with restricted recognition who held full-time resource teaching posts in schools prior to the introduction of the general allocation system would not lose those posts under the new system, my Department has put interim arrangements in place allowing such teachers to fill general allocation posts for this school year.
The eligibility of teachers with restricted recognition to access LS-RT posts going forward is currently being considered by my Department in conjunction with the management bodies and the INTO. Discussions have already taken place on this matter and it is hoped that decisions regarding their eligibility for such posts will be made early in 2006 and notified to schools well in advance of the 2006 to 2007 school year.