Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 November 2012
151. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will remove the cap on the number of special needs assistants in order to allow resources to be allocated on the basis of need; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51334/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to advise the Deputy that the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) is responsible, through its network of local Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs), for processing applications from schools for special educational needs supports, including Special Needs Assistant (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.
10,575 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) SNA posts have been made available for allocation to schools by the NCSE throughout the current school year, subject to qualifying applications being received. The NCSE allocates a level of SNA support for each school annually, taking into account the assessed care needs of all of the qualifying children enrolled in the school. The NCSE initially allocated 10,311 WTE SNA posts to schools for the 2012/13 school year in June of this year, based on the number of valid applications received and the extent of the care needs of qualifying children. A further 103 WTE SNA posts have since been allocated to schools which leave 161 posts 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, these posts should be sufficient to meet demand during the school year.
The NCSE has also advised that every child who has met the criteria for access to SNA support in the current school year to date is in receipt of such support.
Finally, I wish to confirm to the Deputy that this Government remains committed to protecting services for children with special educational needs. The number of SNA posts available for allocation to schools for the 2012/13 school year has been maintained, at a time when there has been a requirement to make savings across a range of expenditure areas.
