Tánaiste: Resources will be used 'to the best advantage' of children with special needs

The Government review into the allocation of resources for children with special needs is "reasonable", Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said today.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has announced a cut in teaching hours for children with special needs from September.

Speaking in the Dáil, Eamon Gilmore said that changing how the resource is best used for those who most need it, is sensible.

"I think that that is reasonable," he said.

"I think it is reasonable, that after 20 years, when this was not looked at, that the Minister would get the National Council for Special Educational Needs to look at how this resource is used in our schools, and to develop a way in which the money and the personnel that are dedicated, which is considerable, for special educational needs, that they are used to the best advantage of the children who need them."

According to the NCSE, "a school with a child with multiple disabilities in September 2012 would have been allocated 4 hours and 15 minutes additional teaching hours each week.

"This year, the same school will be allocated 3 hours and 45 minutes additional teaching support per week."