Special Educational Needs

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 September 2010

Wednesday, 29 September 2010

Ceisteanna (231, 232, 233)

Michael Ring

Ceist:

302 Deputy Michael Ring asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in County Mayo that have special needs assistance in tabular form. [33144/10]

Michael Ring

Ceist:

303 Deputy Michael Ring asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in County Mayo that have made an application for special needs assistance in tabular form; and the number of schools that were refused their application for special needs assistance. [33195/10]

Michael Ring

Ceist:

304 Deputy Michael Ring asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools in County Mayo that have made an application for special needs assistants in tabular form; and the number of these applications have not been dealt with to date. [33182/10]

Freagraí scríofa

Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Mary Coughlan)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 302 to 304, inclusive, together.

As the Deputy will be aware, the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for allocating resource teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to schools to support children with special educational needs. The NCSE operates within my Department's criteria in allocating such support.

Schools apply to their local SENO for SNA resources as new pupils who would qualify for such support are enrolled or as the changing care needs of existing pupils emerge. The allocation for any school, and any adjustments to that allocation, depends on a number of factors such as the number of pupils with care/medical needs leaving, the number of new pupils, the changing needs of the pupils and any surplus identified. I have arranged for the details supplied by the Deputy to be forwarded to the NCSE for their attention and direct reply in this regard.

The information requested by the Deputy in relation to the number of SNAs in schools in County Mayo is not readily available.