Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members]

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

— the invaluable work of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs), who provide essential care and support enabling students with additional needs to access education, is under unprecedented threat;

— the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), acting under the restrictive and outdated "care model" criteria of Circular 0030/2014, has conducted reviews under Circular 0032/2025 that fundamentally fail to recognise the full, dynamic, and holistic role SNAs play in our schools;

— of the 584 schools who have received the outcome of their reviews to date, 194 are facing devastating cuts to their SNA allocations, with some schools losing up to six posts, directly threatening the quality of education and care they can provide;

— the long-standing policy of fostering greater inclusion, which had as its centrepiece the principle of supporting children to stay and thrive in mainstream education, is now being fundamentally reversed and the current removal of SNA supports will make it significantly more difficult, if not impossible, for many children with additional needs to remain in mainstream classes;

— the NCSE is acting as an unaccountable gatekeeper to educational support, operating without transparency, and applying rigid criteria that disregard the complex and individualised needs of real children;

— the Government's claimed "pause" on these reviews has proven to be a cruel illusion, offering no clarity, reassurance, or halt to the anxiety and confusion gripping school communities already notified of impending cuts;

— SNA numbers remain insufficient to meet existing demand, a crisis compounded by a statewide shortage of appropriate school placements, leaving countless children without an appropriate school place to learn and thrive;

— an online petition opposing these short-sighted SNA cuts has galvanised over 70,000 signatures, reflecting widespread public outrage and support for these frontline workers;

— the failure to implement the promised SNA redeployment scheme has left dedicated SNAs, who have already been notified of job losses, facing an anxious and uncertain summer, unsure of their future employment and livelihood; and

— this round of cuts is happening at a time when the new SNA Workforce Development Plan is under active negotiation;

condemns the Government for:

— inflicting profound distress and anxiety on vulnerable children, their families, and school communities through a rigid, clinical, and deeply flawed interpretation of care needs criteria, that reduces children to a checklist of tasks;

— heartlessly removing SNA supports from students whose needs have not diminished, effectively pulling the rug from under children who rely on this support to feel safe, included, and able to participate in school life;

— operating behind a veil of secrecy, by failing to publish the review criteria or provide any meaningful explanation for its devastating decisions, leaving schools and parents in the dark;

— wilfully ignoring the full scope of the SNA role, which extends far beyond basic care to encompass fostering independence, providing emotional support, facilitating social inclusion, and acting as a crucial link between the child, the teacher, and the family;

— applying Circular 0030/2014 in a manner that effectively strips SNA support from autistic and neurodivergent children, on the basis that their needs are not classified as "primary care needs", and by classifying these essential supports as "secondary care needs" the Government is treating autistic and neurodivergent children less favourably than other children with additional needs, and this approach is in direct breach of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004, and potentially the Equal Status Act 2000, both of which guarantee fair and equitable access to services, including education; and

— creating a chaotic and deeply worrying environment for parents of children with additional needs by failing to provide an appropriate school place for every child with additional needs; and

calls on the Government to:

— immediately provide long-overdue clarity and a direct apology to every school, SNA, and family that has been informed of a pending cut, ending the cruel uncertainty they face;

— abandon the disastrous 2025/2026 SNA review in its entirety and immediately reverse all cuts, affirming that the needs of children, not bureaucratic spreadsheet formulas, will determine resource allocation;

— commit to a root-and-branch review and replacement of the outdated Circular 0030/2014, developing a new, fit-for-purpose framework, that recognises the evolving and essential role of the SNA in supporting the holistic needs of the child;

— urgently prioritise and publish a comprehensive SNA Workforce Development Plan, developed in genuine partnership with SNAs and their unions, that formally recognises and values the full, professional scope of their role, including their contribution to educational and social outcomes;

— immediately implement a fair and transparent SNA redeployment scheme, to provide job security for existing SNAs, and retain their invaluable experience within the school system;

— take immediate steps to significantly increase the number of SNA posts and special class places, to address the chronic and unmet demand, ensuring no child is left without a placement;

— guarantee that no future changes to SNA provision will be made without meaningful, constructive, and transparent engagement with schools, parents, and SNAs themselves, ensuring their voices and expertise are central to decision-making; and

— make a steadfast, whole-of-Government commitment that every single child with additional needs will not only secure an appropriate school placement but will also have access to the necessary Special Education Teacher support, SNA care, and therapeutic interventions they require to reach their full potential and participate fully in school life.

I welcome the very many visitors to the Gallery. Today, we debate more than a motion. We debate the future of special education in this country. We send a clear message to the Government that its late-night press release will not stop the momentum for change. Last night, under immense pressure from parents, special needs assistants and 80,000 citizens who signed a petition, the Government performed an eleventh hour U-turn. It announced that there would be no SNA cuts in September and pledged an extra €19 million in funding. This reprieve is welcome for the schools, families and SNAs who have spent weeks in absolute turmoil but this a victory won by the people, not a change of heart by the Government. The Government did not wake up suddenly with a sudden conscious. It retreated because it was caught. It retreated because it knew that tomorrow thousands would take to the streets and tonight this House would hold it to account.

We cannot allow a late-night rescue act to mask the fundamental truth. The system is still broken. The fundamental flaws and the hurt remain. The Government has offered a sticking plaster but let us look at what it has not done. For example, the outdated circular from 2014 - a rule book written 12 long years ago - is still on the books. The National Council for Special Education is still operating as an unaccountable gatekeeper. There is absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that this crisis will not repeat itself in 12 months' time.

The anxiety and distress caused by this fiasco cannot be erased by a Government statement. Families across the State were left worrying about September. SNAs have been left in limbo, their professionalism disrespected, and their dedication thrown into question by a rigid bureaucratic process. The Government owes them more than an apology. It owes them a guarantee that this reckless approach will never again be repeated.

Last night, Sinn Féin hosted an online meeting with 1,100 parents, SNAs, teachers, principals and people with disabilities. The anger and energy was palpable. Despite the Government's move, the momentum for change will not stop. It cannot stop. We need to see the circular from 2014 scrapped and replaced with a modern framework that recognises the full holistic role of a SNA, not just for primary care but for the emotional support, fostering of independence and social inclusion they provide. We need a fair redeployment scheme that protects jobs, not one that creates uncertainty. We need a cast iron whole-of-government commitment that every single child with additional needs will get the support they require as a matter of right, not as a matter of administrative convenience.

The motion before the Dáil offers this Government a chance to do more than just reverse course. It offers it a chance to get the policy right for once and for all. It offers a chance to reset the relationship with the SNA community, parents and schools. Tomorrow, protests across the State and outside the Dáil will go ahead. The momentum will continue beyond that. We are not here to accept a temporary reprieve. We are here to demand permanent change. We are here to ensure that every child with additional needs knows that we stand with them. We are here to ensure that every SNA knows that their work is valued, not by a press release but by a system that puts children first. I call on all TDs from every party to support this motion. Let us turn a reprieve into a reset. Let us turn momentum into lasting change.

Deputy Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh

The Government has finally woken up and seen sense on the SNA issue after what has been a policy failure of epic proportions. However, the question remains, why did it take two weeks to realise that stripping essential supports from some of the most vulnerable children in the State virtually overnight was wrong? This should have never of happened in the first place. Make no mistake if it was not for the ferocious determination of SNAs and families who dug their heels in and refused to accept these cuts, this out of touch Government would have ploughed on. Maith sibh ar fad.

Cé go bhfuil cinneadh an Rialtais ciorruithe cúntóirí riachtanas speisialta a chur ar ceal tar éis an bhuairt i measc an phobal scoile a mhaolú, ní dheachaigh sé i ngleic go fóill leis na bunfhadhbanna atá againn. Caithfear ról na gcúntóirí riachtanas speisialta a leathnú. Níor chóir go ndéanfaí athbhreithniú ar aon leithdháileadh cúntóirí riachtanas speisialta go dtí go n-aithnítear riachtanais iomlána na bpáistí ionas gur féidir le páistí le dúshláin chumarsáide, mhothúchánacha agus iompair rochtain a bheith acu ar an tacaíocht atá de dhíth. Tá na critéir atá ann faoi láthair as dáta agus níl siad ag coinneáil leis an méid atá ag tarlú sna scoileanna.

At Sinn Féin's public meeting last night attended by over 1,000 people, we heard directly from SNAs, parents, principals and disabled individuals who themselves have successfully navigated the education system with their SNA. Many spoke of feeling devalued by the Government's recent actions. SNAs described managing children's intense distress all while celebrating their little milestones - for example, a dyslexic child picking up a book independently and a child feeling empowered to start walking or to speak in class. One mother spoke of her son currently without the right support in school who returns home overwhelmed and frustrated due to having to mask his needs all day in school. We were all fighting back the tears at this meeting.

An apology is owed to the affected families. One woman made a powerful point that some children tuned into this conversation may have internalised the idea that they were somehow the problem. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the system that has failed these beautiful children. Confidence and trust are shattered. An awful lot of work has to be done now to repair. That starts with showing SNAs and vulnerable children the respect they deserve. That means embracing a genuinely child-centred approach. No amount of shiny policy documents or talk of inclusion can convince us that the Government's approach is child-centred until every child has the support they need to succeed in school to the best of their ability. No child should be left behind. There should be no more rationing when it comes to children's education not when we are giving tax breaks to the wealthy.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

This Government's treatment of SNAs has caused huge anger because the SNAs are already working hard day in, day out, alongside teachers to plaster over the cracks of a school system under pressure. SNAs are crucial, not just to the children with additional needs but to all the children in the classroom. What these workers, school communities, children and families have been put through is utterly and absolutely disgraceful. My colleagues are absolutely right that an apology is demanded and deserved.

All children, especially children with special needs, require routine and structure. They need predictability. With this Government's mistreatment of these children, it has ripped away that consistency, routine, structure and predictability. The greatest predictor of success in later life is independence with the activities of daily living. This is where SNAs play a key role.

Nowhere in all this debacle and crisis that the Government created was the children's voices heard. As Teachta Ní Raghallaigh mentioned, we have seen 1,100 SNAs, educators and parents come together pouring out their hearts story after story about the hurt, anger and frustration at what the Government has done. It is has rightly done a U-turn on this issue but it has still left a serious question mark over what comes next.

What parents and schools are asking for is the most basic of respect. Pausing these cuts until September, when there will be another review, is not enough. The Ministers still left this threat hanging over schools. No parent, child, SNA or teacher knows what is coming next. If the review is still to be based on primary medical needs, we will be back at square one. This is why we need a comprehensive response that takes cuts off the table and ensures that every child with additional needs has the support of an SNA, whether this year, next year or the year after.

Deputy David Cullinane

Over the last number of weeks, children, SNAs and parents were put through mental torture because of a decision made by the Ministers' Government. What happened was disgraceful. The Ministers had a plan to cut SNAs from schools and to deprive some children of the supports they had. They thought they would get away with it. Over the course of the last two weeks, I listened to both Ministers doubling down because they thought this would blow over and go away. They were asked time and again on national media whether any schools would lose their SNAs. They were asked whether they could give a guarantee that no schools would lose SNAs and that no children would lose their supports. They were not in a position to do so because they were hoping this issue would go away. It did not go away because SNAs and parents stood up and were not having it. It was only when protests were being organised outside Government Members' constituency offices in county after county, when an online public meeting took place and when it became clear and obvious that this was not going to go away that we saw a partial temporary climb-down from the Government. I have a message for the two Ministers across from me. Temporary solutions are not going to cut it. They have to show respect and dignity to SNAs. They have to give a guarantee that there will not be any cuts this year, next year or the year after. Where more capacity is needed, they need to recruit more SNAs. They need to value all of the work SNAs do in every school across this State.

Deputy Sorca Clarke

Despite Government's best efforts to paint a picture to the contrary, what happened over the last two weeks was not an administrative hiccup. It was a Government-manufactured shambles inflicted upon children who depend on stability and support, children who need the support of an SNA to feel safe, to stay regulated, to participate and to feel like they belong. The Government's letters caused panic and left exhausted parents terrified that the essential supports their children depend upon could simply vanish in September. SNAs were demoralised and schools were scrambling for answers. What did Government offer in response? It offered verbal acrobatics worthy of a three-ring circus while children carried the weight of Government chaos. The Government was willing to preside over children with additional needs struggling to remain in mainstream classes, teachers overstretched and parents in crisis mode until the public backlash became very apparent to everybody in government.

Government talks of inclusion but inclusion without support is not inclusion. It is abandonment. SNAs are not optional extras or bureaucratic line items to be trimmed. They are the difference between inclusion and exclusion and between a child thriving in education or just surviving. The lack of respect and appreciation for the job SNAs do is absolutely staggering. The Ministers must get off their hands, get to the table and engage with SNAs, schools and parents. The outdated focus on primary physical care needs must be replaced with a model that takes account of a child's whole needs. As a very proud autism mammy, I ask the Ministers to please stop treating autistic and neurodivergent children as lesser because their needs are arbitrarily classed as secondary. The work of SNAs must be professionalised and valued. Their profession must be respected for the rewarding, although at times very challenging, one that it is. Finally, the Ministers must own this omnishambles and apologise for the chaos they have caused.

Deputy Matt Carthy

What Ministers and Government have relearned over the past number of days is a lesson they should have copped onto long ago. You do not mess with children with special needs or with the people who care for them because they will fight tooth and nail to ensure the people they love have their rights protected. There is a familiar phrase that anybody who engages with families of children with special needs will have heard time and time again. We hear that it is a battle a day to secure what their children are entitled to, whether that is an assessment, treatment or the right class in the right school at the right time. One of the things that has been inspiring and that brought Government to the point of releasing its late-night press statement was that the response has not just been from the families of children with additional needs or from the SNAs who love those children so much. The response was from whole schools. Communities up and down the country stood with those children who needed support and forced the Government to make what should have been an embarrassing U-turn, although it appears the Government is not embarrassed because the Ministers are still defending the situation that led to this catastrophe in the first instance.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke and others have very clearly set out what needs to happen to deal with the issues regarding SNAs. The Ministers need to heed that advice. They also need to bring a bit of accountability into their Department and ensure accountability from the NCSE. The responses we received to parliamentary questions in respect of special needs education are absolutely unacceptable. They give no information. When we get no information, it means the families get no information. Countless schools in my constituency still do not know whether they will have sanction for special classes come next September even though they have the space to cater for these classes, the demand for them and the utmost determination to deliver them. The blockage is with the Ministers' Department and the NCSE. There has to be a level of accountability. We now have some certainty regarding SNAs. That is crucially important but we need accountability across the board. We need to stop treating special education as crisis management. These are our children and our schools. They deserve more than that.

Deputy Natasha Newsome Drennan

I thank my colleagues in Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I especially thank them for bringing together over 1,100 SNAs, teachers and parents last night. They shared with us some of the most beautiful, moving and powerful accounts of the difference that SNAs make in our schools. Most importantly, they spoke of the profound impact SNAs have on the development and well-being of tens of thousands of children across the State. There were tears, disgust, outrage, hurt, upset, alarm and fear. One lady with Down's syndrome spoke about her experience of having the support of an SNA and how it made her thrive and excel. It was an absolute lifeline for her. Last night's meeting left me wondering how the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-led Government could ever conclude that cutting the number of SNAs would result in anything other than a devastating impact on schools, teachers, families and children right across the country.

Schools still need clarity and SNAs still need certainty and not just a sticking plaster for another year. SNAs are not an optional extra. They are an integral part of our schools, woven into the very fabric of the school environment. They cannot simply be cut or relocated at the whim of the Minister or the NCSE. The fact is that children excel with supports. They deserve better than to be the subject of some box-ticking exercise. The Ministers should not just treat them like numbers.

I would really like to know what is wrong with this Government. Why does it keep making a mess of everything? At the end of every mess it makes are real people and, in this case, real children. They deserve better.

Deputy Paul Donnelly

I listened to the Taoiseach today. It was probably the most out of touch response I have heard. I was absolutely shocked. I got an email today that really encapsulates how all of this feels.

I am writing as a parent of a child attending Pelletstown Educate Together National School and as a member of the wider community. My daughter is autistic and attends a mainstream class in our school. She thrives in an inclusive environment but she requires daily access to an SNA's support for her well-being, emotional regulation and participation in school life. This support is not a luxury. It is essential to her ability to access education safely and meaningfully. Her SNA provides crucial assistance with transitions, managing sensory overwhelm, communication support and helping her remain regulated enough to engage in learning. Without this consistent support she would struggle significantly in the classroom environment and her confidence, independence and overall well-being would be negatively affected. The presence of an SNA allows her not only to learn but to feel secure, included and valued amongst her peers. The SNA plays a vital role in enabling children with additional care needs to access their right to education on an equal basis with their classmates. They also ensure that teachers can focus on teaching while students with additional needs receive the appropriate care and support required throughout the day. For families like ours, appropriate SNA supports are the difference between a child merely attending school and a child truly flourishing within it.

The next sentence is the crux of the issue.

We are seeing attempts to limit supports to children and young people in our schools. Our school has seen increasing complexity and needs over the years. All schools have seen increasing numbers of students with increasing additional needs and you have attempted to cut and move SNAs using an extremely limited set of criteria rather than give every child the chance of attaining the highest level of education and space to enjoy their school experience.

Last night we heard 1,100 students and parents and we will continue to fight with them and to fight for all children who deserve the best education that we as legislators can provide them with.

Minister for Education and Youth (Deputy Hildegarde Naughton)

I welcome the opportunity to address the House this evening, to speak to this motion and provide an update on special needs assistants. At the outset, I want to be very clear: this Government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs and the programme for Government makes a number of commitments to deliver on this objective.

I want to state categorically that no cuts are proposed, or will be proposed, to the provision of SNAs to children and young people across our school system. Last night, the Government met and agreed a number of measures that will give clarity to schools, parents, young people and SNAs. These measures are: all schools reviewed by the NCSE and allocated additional resources will receive them in the upcoming school year; no reductions will come into effect in the 2026-2027 school year; and the SNA redeployment scheme, the SNA workforce development plan, and changes to the 2014 circular outlining the role of an SNA will be advanced before any further decisions are taken.

At the forefront of our deliberations was ensuring that the child-centred approach to the provision of special education is retained and enhanced in these policy developments. Working alongside almost 22,000 special education teachers, this September will see almost 25,000 SNAs play a key role in our schools, supporting children and young people with care needs. I know from meeting SNAs, families and young people that many children would not thrive in school without them. Their work, hand in hand with special education teachers, is paramount to helping children achieve. That is why I fully understand why we have heard a lot of genuine concern and worry over the last week from SNAs, schools and parents on how they might be affected by any changes to school allocations.

We have also heard a lot of misinformation. It is important to bring clarity on some of the issues. This Government has nothing but respect for SNAs, special education teachers, schools, students and their families.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

The Minister can hear the response to that from the people in the Gallery.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

I fully appreciate and endorse the need to ensure all special education policies are child-centred and designed to assist young people thrive in school and help them to reach their full potential. That is why the Government has provided more special education teachers and more SNAs, doubled the number of special classes, opened 16 new special schools in the last five years and massively increased investment in the summer programme, which has seen a threefold increase in its budget. To say that the Government is not funding resources for children with special educational needs is a mistruth. To say that the Government was proposing to make hundreds of SNAs redundant is simply wrong. To be clear, there are currently 23,179 SNAs working in schools across the country. Last year, there were 21,579. Next September, there will be 24,896 SNAs. Clearly, there was no proposal to make SNAs redundant. It is disingenuous of any party in this House to say so.

It is useful to speak to the role of the National Council for Special Education in this area. The NCSE has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on the education provision and care support for children and young people with special educational needs in our schools. This includes the allocation of special needs assistant support to schools. I fully support the NCSE in its work. It is important to give some context on how the NCSE reviews take place. Special educational needs organisers, SENOs, are from various professional backgrounds and include occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, school principals, special education teachers, early intervention specialists, SNAs and mainstream class teachers. These SENOs undertake school reviews. The NCSE has always undertaken SNA reviews. In the 2024-2025 school year, around 1,400 reviews were conducted. In the current school year, some 1,000 reviews were completed.

Schools are notified in advance of a review, and the NCSE undertakes a robust process to ensure that reviews are based on the care needs of an individual school because, as Members of the House are aware, SNAs are allocated to schools, and not individual children.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

The Minister should tell the Taoiseach that.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

There is no mindset in the NCSE to cut resources. The NCSE appreciates the complexities of school life and deploys leniency in its outcomes, working to retain supports available to children in schools. Among the information the NCSE requires to conduct a review are student support files for each young person. These files, which are compiled by the teacher, document an individual child's needs and their progress over time. They help inform the school in providing an appropriate level of support. Parents know what is best for their child. That is why, in addition to the student support plan, the NCSE asks that parents complete a questionnaire outlining the care needs of their child. Parents who may have difficulty in completing this questionnaire are provided with contact details for the SENO tasked with completing the school review, so their child's needs can be documented.

The review process also includes consultation with staff in the school, including class teachers, special education teachers, SNAs and principals. As I previously said, the NCSE works to retain supports for children, but circumstances arise which mean that an SNA may no longer be required. These include cases where a student or students with highly significant care needs leave the school or where children in receipt of support move to post-primary level or leave school.

Deputy David Cullinane

That is not what was happening.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

There are also the obvious and best outcome cases where children, with the assistance of their special education teachers and SNAs, gain independence and no longer require the same level of support. These outcomes are what our system is designed to achieve.

I reject the assertion that the NCSE operates, as one Member of this House has claimed, as an "unaccountable gatekeeper". Once a SENO has finished a school review, a national panel within the NCSE reviews this decision to ensure consistency and that care needs are being captured. If a school is not satisfied with the review, it can appeal it. This appeal is adjudicated by NCSE staff who were not involved in the original review. If a school is still not satisfied, it can request a further appeal from an independent panel, members of which are drawn from education stakeholder groups.

As I said earlier, the Government has agreed that three key documents are to be published in the near future which will provide additional clarity to the system. The first is the SNA redeployment scheme, long called for by SNAs and trade unions. This will provide a method by which SNAs can be redeployed around the school system to ensure we have the right resources in the right place. This scheme is near finalisation and was developed following significant stakeholder engagement to ensure it works for SNAs and schools.

The second document is the SNA workforce development plan, developed following extensive discussion and engagement with SNAs and trade unions. Development of the plan involved 55 meetings of five working groups, each of which included two SNAs, one of whom was a trade union member. There were also bilaterals with trade unions and meetings with a dedicated SNA workforce development group.

Finally, a 2014 circular outlining the role of the SNA will be advanced and completed.

Deputy David Cullinane

It should have been done first.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

After these key documents are published, the NCSE can commence reviews of supports provided to schools for the 2027-2028 academic year which will uphold the integrity of the process, which allocates supports based on the needs of children.

As is the case at any stage of the year, and indeed for any school, the NCSE will be available to support schools and discuss with them the deployment of SNA resources allocated to support their students and their care needs. Schools can also request a review of their allocation if care needs change.

Deputy David Cullinane

This is an absolute joke.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

I understand the anger and upset that arose this week, and I fully accept that the process and outcomes were not properly communicated. I will work to ensure-----

Deputy David Cullinane

Communication was not the problem; it was the Minister's decision.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

-----this does not happen again. We want an education system where every child and young person feels and is valued, and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential. This Government is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs. No cuts are proposed, or will be proposed-----

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

The Minister is in denial.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

----- to the provision of SNAs. I thank families, the school communities and the young children and assure them that this Government is listening-----

Deputy Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh

Apologise.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The Minister is far from listening with that speech.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

-----and we are committed to doing the right thing.

Deputy Máire Devine

I am a bit astounded by the Minister's response. I do not think it sets the tone. She is really doing herself a disservice. She is doing the Government a disservice. Most of all, she is doing all those people in the Gallery a complete and utter disservice. She has attacked the vulnerable. Why is it that the vulnerable get attacked time and again? These people have fought, rallied, protested, camped out and demanded that each child who needs an SNA is provided with an SNA. She has come in, in her wisdom - I say that lightly - and put a pen through all of that.

The Minister said there have been misunderstandings and mistruths. That is pretty strong stuff coming from her when she got it wrong. She has severely attacked SNAs, parents, pupils and principals and families across this country. She caused an awful lot of embarrassment to herself. She has made a U-turn but is not calling it that. I think she needs to own it. It goes down much better and she will get over it a lot quicker because these guys are going to let her slide off with the nonsense she has just said, and neither will we.

Again, it is the most vulnerable. I keep saying that. The most vulnerable in our society are always the first to be targeted and this is what is happening. I do not oppose the re-evaluation of SNA allocations across schools. It is vital to ensure schools are properly resourced and children receive every support in order to get a full education. From speaking with staff of schools in the Dublin South Central constituency, St. James's Primary School in Basin Lane and Canal Way Educate Together also in Basin Lane, they all agree. However, parents and SNAs in my district believe that her advised toolkit criteria is unfair. Many children who previously qualified for SNAs, such as those needing emotional regulation and managing sensory overload, no longer qualify. How wrong and tone-deaf can the Minister be? She should own her own misguided, misleading statements and actions and please do it now.

Deputy Donna McGettigan

Last night, I attended a meeting of well over 1,000 people. They were SNAs, parents and students. I listened to heartbreaking stories of fear and anxiety but I also heard stories of hope, of children who flourished, found their voice, were full of confidence because they had the support of a special needs assistant by their side. Today, after a brutal decision to cut SNAs, the Minister comes in here talking about no cuts and an extended pause. That is not compassion; that is a rowing back because of the public backlash. The very fact she even contemplated cutting this vital service in the first place tells families everything they need to know about where vulnerable children rank in her priorities. They are people. They are not just a diagnosis.

SNAs have said they face job insecurity every year. I have been contacted by schools, teachers, SNAs and students across Clare. They are shocked and angry, and rightly so. The SNA service should be used as a tool to empower children. Who does the Minister thinks builds relationships in classrooms? Who helps regulate and support children so that entire classes can function and learn? It is SNAs. They are not an optional extra; they are essential.

Children with additional needs deserve respect and dignity. These are two simple words that have life-changing impacts. Instead, what we have seen is disrespect. It is disrespect to students and to SNAs and an immense strain has been put on parents who already fight every single day for their children.

We face a shortage of special class places, growing waiting lists, children without appropriate placements and, at the same time, announcements of new classes where there is uncertainty about the infrastructure to properly support them. That makes no sense.

The true measure of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable. On this issue, the Government is failing that test. We know the value of SNAs. Families know the value of SNAs. The question is whether the Minister does. We need to protect SNAs, protect the rights and dignity of our children, parents, pupils and SNAs and schools need to see action, not big announcements when there are still not enough SNAs out there.

Deputy Mark Ward

I begin by congratulating the parents of children with additional needs, the school communities and the special needs assistants themselves. Many of them are here tonight. I have been contacted by parents, principals and SNAs in Clondalkin, Lucan and across Dublin Mid-West over the past couple of weeks in relation to this. I was at an event on Thursday in Collinstown Community College, where people in Clondalkin are trying to make it an autism-friendly town. Members of the Minister's own party, Fine Gael, were there, getting photographs with children and parents. Where are they tonight? Not one of them is here tonight. They are ashamed to come into this room and back up what the Government is trying to do to the parents around here. The Government has done that much of a U-turn I am surprised the Minister does not have whiplash.

I listened to the Minister's interviews in recent weeks. All she had to say was some of the stuff that was said in this statement, although not all of it. She stated that all schools reviewed by the NCSE and allocated additional resources will receive them in the upcoming year. That would have stopped anxiety and worry for the SNAs the Minister sees here tonight. She stated that no reductions will come into effect in 2026 and 2027. She could not give those assurances to parents and SNAs in recent weeks.

The NCSE, which the Minister talked about earlier, is not perfect. Nobody is going to say it is perfect but the Government is using it as a scapegoat. The NCSE is carrying out her instructions to the letter. It is doing exactly what it was told to do. It is following the 2014 circular the Government brought in. The Minister should not stand up here and say she is blaming the NCSE-----

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

I am not saying that.

Deputy Mark Ward

-----when the responsibility lies with the Government.

Deputy Hildegarde Naughton

I am not saying that.

Deputy Mark Ward

The Government needs to take responsibility. In her ten-minute speech, I did not hear an apology to the people in the Gallery - not once, not one apology.

Deputy Donna McGettigan

Bad tone.

Deputy Martin Kenny

This has gone on for almost two weeks. The point was made earlier that it is a battle a day for the parents of children with special needs. All of us in this House know that because all of us are being contacted every day of the week by families who are trying to get an assessment of need, a place in a school or an appointment somewhere in the health service for their children but cannot get them. They are fighting continually and they are worn out. Sometimes they have children who hardly sleep at all and they have to stay awake with them.

This is the one time they get something that actually works. I know a school with a number of special classes and SNAs in place and to which children attending were very difficult. Within a short period of time - a number of months - you could see improvement and advancement, mainly because of the work being done on a one-to-one basis by the SNA with those children.

To suggest that somehow or other, the Minister miscommunicated or that there was a misunderstanding is the greatest load of rubbish anyone ever heard in their lives. The reality is that for two weeks, the Minister has wrangled and tried to say this or that but she would not come out and say she gave an instruction to review the SNAs with an intention of removing them from children in certain schools where she felt she could get away with it. That is what she tried to do and she needs to own up to that reality.

There are schools in all our constituencies looking to open up additional classes but cannot get it done. There are a number of them in my constituency. There are also special schools that want to open up more spaces but cannot do it because they cannot get the resources. This entire system is a shambles and has been a shambles for a long time.

However, this debacle over the past week or two has shown where the Government stands. It does not stand with the ordinary people out there who need the help they absolutely must have for the most vulnerable in our society. The Minister and Minister of State need to own up to this and apologise for what they have done.

Deputy Maurice Quinlivan

I wondered what the Minister would say when she came to the Chamber tonight. I was thinking about this all day. From what she said, I do not believe she has understood the stress, hurt and concern she has caused for families, schools and SNAs. The capitulation of the Government last night, while welcome, comes on the back of a campaign that was organised by SNAs, schools and parents. They should not have to do that.

One word was missing from the Minister's speech and that was "sorry". She did not say that. There should be an apology for the mess she caused in the last few weeks and the stress she caused for people who are dealing with some of the most vulnerable cases. Any TD or constituency office will tell her they never have a clinic without somebody coming to them with an issue around additional or special needs, children's school places, supports, SNAs, lack of SNAs, lack of school places, or projects being promised that have not been delivered. It goes on and on. There is never a clinic any of us go to where this issue does not come up. It is a huge issue.

I again thank the people who said they were not going to tolerate this and that it would not happen. Some of them are in the Gallery; fair play to them for coming tonight. There were 1,100 or 1,200 people at the Zoom meeting that was on last night. It was very powerful, as some of my colleagues said. They told their stories about their children. As my colleague, Deputy McGettigan said, there was not just sorrow and stress but hope in how kids thrive when they get the proper supports they need. The Minister needs to say sorry to people.

Deputy Eoghan Kenny

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing the motion forward. I welcome the fact there will be statements on this in the Dáil tomorrow. I welcome any parents, SNAs or students who are in the Gallery.

The Minister and Minister of State will appreciate this has been a significantly difficult two weeks for SNAs, school communities, parents and children with additional needs. I have met and spoken with a number of school principals, SNAs and parents in particular across the country over the past two weeks as a result of the fact that supports were going to be taken from children. It has been said on a number of occasions in the House over the past number of weeks that cuts were going to take place. The Taoiseach refuted that on each occasion.

At budget time, I welcomed the increase in allocation of SNAs. I welcome developments in our education system. I always will but, fundamentally, we must ensure that resources are never taken for granted and never taken from children. That was what was going to happen. Although the fact is we were going to increase our allocation of SNAs, the rigid criteria created by the Department of education was ultimately going to take SNA provision and support from children. There is no refuting that because schools that had SNA provision got a review from SENOs and the NCSE and were told they were losing SNAs. That support was going to be taken from the child. That is exactly what was going to happen. The Taoiseach can state that no cuts were going to take place and jobs were going to be secured all he wants. Ultimately, provision of SNA allocation and resources were going to be taken from children.

Today, in response to my party leader, the Taoiseach said, "The Government never signed off on this [initiative]". This policy was created by this Government. The Department of education asked the NCSE to implement this policy. The NCSE did that. The SENOs went to schools, did the reviews and gave the letters back to the schools outlining X amount of SNAs they would lose or gain. They implemented that policy, so the Government did sign off on that initiative. I think the Taoiseach misinterpreted the facts. We did not ask him whether he signed every letter individually to each school but he has to stand over the fact, as do the Minister and Minister of State, that this was a Department of education policy implemented by the National Council for Special Education.

On the plinth this morning, I spoke about the fact I would hate to be one of the 120 or so SENOs in this country. Why? If I were a SENO asked to do a job, I might not have agreed with the policy. More than likely, because they are all human like us, the SENOs probably did not agree with the policy because they did not want to take resources from schools, but they had to go and have the tough conversations with principals of schools to say they were losing SNAs. Yet, this morning, they heard there was row back on it, and that the Government did not agree with the policy and was going to change it. All schools would keep their SNAs and the decisions the SENOs made, based on the policy the Government told them to implement, were no longer going to go ahead. I got a text from a SENO tonight who told me they were at home crying all day. Can you imagine that? That should not be the case.

In all these deliberations over the past two weeks, we should think of the number of people we as a State have failed. We have failed children with additional needs, SENOs and members of the NCSE who implemented a policy created by the Government. We have failed principals who had to have the difficult conversations with their SNAs to say they were last in and would be first out. I will also contribute on that.

In relation to the redeployment scheme, how did we ever believe it was acceptable to send letters to schools stating they were losing SNAs without ever having a redeployment scheme established? I understand the fact it will be done in a number of weeks. I welcome redeployment and understand it is necessary. I welcome it because, naturally, needs change in schools. I accept that, but how did the Minister and Minister of State ever think that sending these letters outlining cuts to SNAs in schools was okay, which would leave a cohort of workers in a situation where they had no idea where they were going to be working next year?

The Taoiseach assured us that no jobs were going to be lost. That is okay, but a person who has been a special needs assistant in a school for a certain number of years cannot be left in limbo. They cannot be left in a position where they do not know where they are going to be working. It could be 45 km away from their current place of work. I agree with the fact, which the Minister has said on a number of occasions, that the SNAs had a great say in this redeployment. That is to be welcomed. I will always welcome that all stakeholders be involved in creating different circumstances within the Department, but how did we ever think it was going to be acceptable to send a letter to a school to say it would lose SNAs, have principals bring those people into their office, tell them their job is gone, and that person having to go home not knowing where their job is going to be for the next year, or if they are going to be able to keep their job? So many SNAs have come to me and said that the job or position they have been offered is 0.25 hours or 0.5 hours. Realistically, there are naturally going to be cuts because nobody is going to take a position like that. Nobody will take up a position that is 0.25 hours. That could be 20 minutes of the week; I do not know how much it is. No one will take that, so naturally there will be cuts.

There are so many lessons to be learned from this. All of us in this House have to learn from this. We have abruptly tried to make a decision on taking provision of services from children. That should never ever be allowed to happen. If any child in this country needs a resource, money should never be a barrier. Whatever about that, it should never ever be incorporated into any policy that a child who needs a resource should not be given it. Why should we pit one child against another based on their individual needs? No child is the same as the other, so we should not pit needs against each other.

The Government must also accept that although it is a fact, which, as I said, I accept, that allocations have increased, the level of resources has not kept up with the level of need. There is a significant level of need in our country right now. I accept that there will be over 25,000 SNAs in our country.

It is wonderful and a brilliant achievement but it is not enough. We can do more. If we can get an allocation of €19 million overnight, what more could we do? I am here to help. Anything I can do, I will do, but when things have to be called out, the Minister has to appreciate that she has to own up to the mistake that was made. A policy decision was taken by the Department of education. The Department asked the NCSE to implement that decision, and it did so. That is the difficulty I have.

Does the fact that we are now going to review the policy mean that the Minister no longer has confidence in it? We allowed it to be implemented, and she knew it was being implemented. She took up her position and knew it was going to be implemented. Does she no longer have faith in it? If she does not, is it because there was such an outcry and a backlash against the Government? We do not need to be lectured on the role of the NCSE. I believe it, and the SENOs have been thrown under the bus.

Deputy Ciarán Ahern

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this important motion. I pay tribute to the thousands of SNAs, teachers, parents, school principals and those in the broader school community who have forced the Government to back down on the attempt to cull SNA supports for schools and children with additional needs across the country. It was the groundswell against this move and the national outcry of thousands of people that got us to where we are now. However, our already stressed and strained school communities should not have had to do this. The roll-back of the move is absolutely welcome but it cannot be the end point. It must be the beginning of something new. It must, we would hope, be the beginning of a fundamental reassessment of our special education system, from the role of the SNA to how levels of need are determined and how SNA support is allocated within schools.

I refer the Minister to Ciara Reilly's Substack page, as others have also done. Ms Reilly has written a series of excellent articles on how this debacle has unfolded. I will briefly refer to a couple of the points she made. The first is the issue with the SNA deployment toolkit. From what I can see, that is where all roads seem to lead in many respects. Under this mechanism, SNA support is allocated almost exclusively to children with the most significant primary care needs. The threshold for meeting those needs seems to be applied quite rigidly. The upshot is that children with perhaps less severe and often more behaviour-based needs can be excluded. However, those children, including children with sensory issues, attention issues and those who require emotional regulation, need and deserve SNA support too. Teachers who are already overburdened will be further strained without that support. Ultimately, this harms all students, be they children in mainstream classes, children in special classes or children in special schools, and their right to a decent education. We can debate technicalities and administrative matters concerning how we deploy SNAs but we cannot lose sight of the fact that beneath all of this is the well-being of children.

The second key issue is the 2014 circular that defines the role of the SNA. It evolved the role into one that seems to be much more focused on caregiving than supporting access to education. This means SNA support is granted only in acute circumstances, where care needs are considered at the expense of educational needs. This sidelines an entire cohort of children with special educational needs who do not fit neatly into the criteria or tick a very specific box.

The role of an SNA should fundamentally be about supporting a child's access to education. This may require some care-based responsibilities, but we cannot allow a situation to emerge where children who require additional support are denied it because they do not fit into the correct box.

Deputy Jen Cummins

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion and the work it has done on it today and over the past while. The Opposition and several Members on the Government side are united on the fact that what occurred should never have happened. The Government has been forced to climb down because of enormous public anger. It is a victory for parents, SNAs, school communities, advocacy groups and others who have contacted every TD, Senator and publicly elected representative.

Unfortunately, the Government is now desperate to kick the can down the road for another year. I will come to that in a minute, because what happens the year after will also be a challenge. What has occurred has led to so much uncertainty for SNAs and the children they support. The handling of the issue over recent weeks has been disastrous and consequently it has caused huge distress among families, school leaders and, of course, SNAs.

The countrywide protest planned for tomorrow will go ahead. Perhaps the announcement very late last night was a bid to prevent it, but the reality is that it now needs to happen more than ever because this should never have happened. When the protest happens tomorrow, three things will be asked for, the first being that the circular, which is too narrow and outdated, be revised. Meeting primary care needs was what the SNA role was originally created for. However, that role, like many things in education, has evolved. The circular needs to evolve to reflect the reality of the needs of students in our schools now. I really hope the Minister can redeem herself by ensuring it reflects the reality in the schools and the needs of the children.

Second, the Department must bring forward all stakeholders. There are experts. One cannot know everything and the NCSE cannot, but there are experts who know many things and they need to be engaged.

Third, there must be a full understanding of how redeployment will happen. The reality is that the relationships SNAs have with the children they support are key. You cannot help a child to regulate if they do not trust you and it is not safe.

It is vital that redeployment is not treated as a numbers game. This will be the most important thing that happens. Redeployment is not just about one child leaving a school and about knocking off a few hours here and there; it is about relationships. It is as fundamental as any other part of the school system. You cannot just knock off bits of things because it makes sense to do so in a numbers game. The relationship aspect is so important. The Government needs to rebuild the trust that has been so badly damaged. I do not envy the Minister. I am sure that, from a personal perspective, things have been torturous for her over the past while, but that must not supersede the torture that families, children and SNAs have experienced. She will have to work very hard to restore trust.

The Respect for SNAs campaign started in 2019. I was a member of Fórsa at the time. The campaign started because SNAs were not respected and not valued or treated as they should have been within our education system. What we can see now is the respect that SNAs have among all parents, schools and those who contacted members of the Opposition. I am aware that the Minister has said she respects them, so she now needs to demonstrate that in action. She needs to prove herself to show she does respect SNAs.

In the background is the question of what will happen of foot of the change regarding assessments of need on entering special schools. How will allocation work? This year everything was supposed to be sorted out, but there will be another nuance to consider when children do not need the diagnosis. How will special education places be allocated then?

That brings me to special schools for mild general learning disabilities. How will these schools avoid becoming catch-all schools? How will they avoid the erosion of the specialised care they are excellent at providing to children with mild general learning disabilities? A one-size-fits-all approach is going to be a huge failure in this regard.

The Taoiseach said earlier that he will work with the Opposition and, as other Members noted, with whoever needs to be worked with to get this sorted. The reality is that this has gone wrong. We have to work together. We have to work with whoever has the knowledge. We do not need to be precious about it; we need to get it done. Therefore, I have written to the Taoiseach and asked, on the basis that one of the requests for tomorrow is for the protest, that he engage with the relevant Ministers and facilitate it. I think he gave me an answer in which he said "Yes", so I have written to him to ask how it can be facilitated.

There was no apology today. Tomorrow there will be an apology for another group of people who were harmed, many moons ago, in our schools. I hope an apology regarding SNAs never has to come. The Minister has time now to rectify the problem and ensure this does not continue to be an absolute disaster. What is important now is that lessons be learned from this. Nothing like this should ever happen again. I am asking the Minister and Minister of State to take stock in order to ensure that the necessary steps are taken and fully considered. I ask them to listen to stakeholders who have experience.

I also ask the Minister and the Minister of State to please bring humanity back into the classrooms because what we have seen over the past few days should never happen. We should never, ever have to apologise to children in the future. We will be doing that tomorrow for things that happened in the past and we cannot do it in the future for what is happening to children today.

Deputy Liam Quaide

I commend Sinn Féin on its motion. What we have witnessed in recent weeks on the issue of special needs assistants has been nothing short of a fiasco, one that has caused deep and unnecessary anxiety for families, teachers, principals and SNAs across the country. At its core this episode reveals a Government that still does not understand the daily reality of inclusion in our schools. Instead of planning properly for rising need, the Department of education attempted a crude "robbing Peter to pay Paul" exercise, shifting supports from one school to another as if children's needs were interchangeable and as if relationships, stability and continuity in the classroom did not matter. This was not meaningful, consultation-based workforce planning; it was spreadsheet management. It was based on a fundamentally outdated and narrow understanding of what SNAs actually do.

The Government continues to speak about SNAs as if their role is confined to physical care needs, but anyone who has spent time in a modern classroom knows that this bears little resemblance to reality. SNAs support children with emotional regulation and sensory overwhelm. They support communication, participation and belonging in education. They often provide the steady relational presence that allows the child to remain in school at all. Crucially, however, SNAs not only support the individual child with an identified disability or additional need; they support the entire ecosystem of the classroom. Their presence allows teachers to teach. It allows other children to learn without recurring disruption. They create the conditions in which inclusion works, not just in theory but in practice. Remove that support and the impact is felt across the whole class, not just by the one child.

We should also say something clearly about the people doing this work. SNAs are not highly paid for the invaluable work they do every day, which is emotionally demanding, highly skilled relational work. They are poorly rewarded. Yet, despite that, they remain one of the most committed groups in our education system.

If the Government is serious about inclusion, then the forthcoming workforce development plan for SNAs cannot be just another review exercise. It must deliver a secure, decent contract structure, proper career progression and the recognition of the full scope of the SNA role. Any future review of SNA allocations must be grounded in the full breadth of what SNAs actually do in schools, not in a narrow, outdated definition that ignores the relational, regulatory and classroom-wide impact of their work.

Once again, we see the same underlying mindset from the Government. Essential front-line staff are viewed primarily as a cost to be contained rather than as an investment in children, families and the functioning of the education system as a whole. When that mindset dominates, what follows is entirely predictable: short-term, politically reactive decisions and crisis management instead of forward-planning. We saw it in the rushed communications to schools, in the confusion over allocations and in the Government scrambling to reassure parents only after public anger became insurmountable and impossible to ignore. Now we hear talk of deploying clinicians into mainstream schools as if to compensate for future cuts to SNAs.

Multidisciplinary supports in schools are desperately needed. Educational psychology, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy services should be embedded in our education system. However, where is the plan, where are the timelines, where is the workforce strategy and where is the clarity on recruitment, funding and delivery? At the moment, this looks less like a reform programme and more like a political holding statement designed to get the Government through the current news cycle. What families and schools need now is forward planning, transparency and a clear commitment that supports will expand in line with need and not be shuffled around when pressure builds and cost containment becomes the narrow priority. If we are serious about inclusive education, we must treat SNAs and school-based supports as core assets, no different from classrooms, transport or teachers.

Deputy Eoin Hayes

I have a constituent who has a daughter with complex behavioural needs. She has severe ADHD and a mild learning disability. They recounted their story to me on Monday. It really drove home for me how much parents have to fight and advocate for everything for their children, the very real risk for too many families who are not equipped to do so and the subsequent gaps in how this Government and the State support children with special needs. In this particular case, it took nearly two years for early checks to be done on the child or for the child to get access to the CDNT in the area. It took another year to get involvement from CAMHS. This resulted in the family going privately for medication. All the while, the education supports were not forthcoming. The Department's approach on reallocation of resources has been nothing short of scandalous, a truly dispiriting display of callousness, ineptitude and neglect. It has been well established in this Chamber and outside of it that the criteria for allocation of resources for children with special needs are not comprehensive enough. They are simplistic. They do not recognise the principle of equity in addressing each child's experience and, as a result, are deeply unjust. As my constituent said to me, inclusion without adequate resourcing is not meaningful and we are storing up the problem for a much bigger one in the future. I could not agree more.

I also pay particular tribute to the teachers, schools and SNAs who take care of children with special needs so well, who go above and beyond, even if this Government is not willing to do so and even when resources are not forthcoming, and who do everything to help, even when the Government does not. In this vein, I implore both the Minister and the Minister of State not to pit schools, parents or differing conditions against one another for those resources. That would be, as it has always been, an unmitigated disaster for everyone involved. Please do better.

Deputy Brian Stanley

The proposed cuts and review, as it was called, which were really cutbacks, were a total disaster and have generated a massive amount of concern. There has been a huge backlash to it from parents, SNAs, teachers, unions and families. In County Laois, two schools were going to have their SNAs, vital supports, cut. It has created all those concerns and uncertainties and fear in those schools and in the families who need them. The plan must be scrapped, not just paused.

In Laois, Timahoe National School and Rath National School were facing cuts in their SNA allocations. I had numerous letters, contacts and discussions with parents in those schools. If these cuts were implemented, it would have had disastrous consequences not just for the children with the additional needs but also for their classmates. Quite simply, a teacher would have to do the work of the SNA and would have to fill the gap. SNAs are vital to enable children who have a level of disability or some additional needs to stay in the mainstream classroom setting. The alternative is children falling away from school or going to an ASD class when that is not maybe where they should be, or going to a special school. SNAs provide vital assistance, not just with physical needs of pupils but also with the psychological, learning and emotional needs and they are a crucial support. Some of these schools now have classes where up to 40% or 50% of the children are from households in which English is not the first language, particularly in the Portlaoise area, and that needs to be factored in. This is a huge problem for families and for teachers trying to cover this.

The real problem with what the NCSE and the Government planned is that there is an obvious attempt to narrow the role of the SNA. The lack of any serious engagement prior to that with SNAs, unions, parents and school representatives is regrettable. The circular sent out - and this is where the difficulty arises - was clear. It states: "The behaviour should be supported holistically with whole school and whole class approaches and individual needs supported by the class teacher". The class teacher is then taken away from teaching the other 20 or 25 children each time there is some disruption with the additional needs of a child who needs this. I ask the Minister and the Minister of State to picture that situation and to explain to me how that would work. It cannot work.

The Government needs to shred this NCSE plan. This should not be just a stay of execution. The Government should get rid of it. There needs to be proper engagement with teachers, unions and SNAs. The Government needs to work towards putting improvements into the SNA system and ensure that children have the proper support they need in the place they need it.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

We have witnessed a nationwide revolt against the cuts that were being implemented to SNAs and, as a result of that revolt and the threat that it will escalate, the Government has backed down.

That is a great victory for the SNAs, parents, teachers and school communities who stood up, fought back and refused to accept these misguided and frankly cruel cuts. However, as the Minister has been told, the protests are going ahead tomorrow. The reason they are going ahead, from talking today to my former primary school community and the principal there today, and to others involved in the protests, is that they do not trust the Government not to have them back in a year's time where we were in the past week or two. That is basically it. The parents of children with special needs have spent every week, month and year of their children's lives fighting for adequate resources and for assessments, services and therapies they do not get most of the time. They do not trust the Government because it has failed them, and they cannot understand how it got to proposing the cuts it tried to implement last week.

Simon Lewis, the principal of Carlow Educate Together National School, put it very well to me about a year ago and I said it at the time in the Dáil. When I asked him how the allocation issue could be resolved, he said to trust schools. It is as simple as that; we must trust schools, not operate on the basis of organised distrust or fear. This is what was going on if you listen carefully. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, was in my former primary school, Johnstown national school. It was at the epicentre of these cuts and was to have its SNA numbers cut from nine to 3.8. All the schools in the local area were there at a meeting. The Minister was saying that an awful lot more people are being diagnosed with special needs and asking if it was because we did not identify them before or if it is because there are more. I thought to myself that while she was asking an interesting philosophical question, it did not make a damn bit of difference to what is actually needed, which the school knows. If you listen to the school, the SNAs and the teachers, they know what is needed. We should believe them because they are not making it up. If the Government had started with that, it never would have come up with the misguided policy. The misguided policy was because of fear that the Government might have to put more resources in. That was the actual reason, and now the Government has been forced to put more resources in anyway because of the revolt. However, schools do not trust the Government not to do the same in a year's time because they have been let down so badly. They need reassurance that the Government has learned its lesson from this, that it is going to trust schools and that it is not going to treat people like numbers when it is rewriting the circular. It is an insulting circular that talks about anybody who does not have medical needs as having challenging behaviour. That is like a throwback to the 1950s and the badly behaved children. The schools want educators involved in the rewriting of that circular. We need commitments on that, and we need a recognition. We need the therapies in schools, not pilots.

By the way, we need to create the places in higher and further education in order that people who want to be qualified can get qualified. I happen to know somebody who has a master's degree and a bachelor's degree and applied for the UCD course in psychology. There were nine places for 270 applicants, so she did not get it. There were 270 applicants but only nine places. We need hundreds of these people. Why are there only nine places in UCD for clinical psychology? There is about the same number for educational psychology and counselling psychology. Why are we rationing access to the education necessary to get people qualified to provide the services that children with special needs need, and that we need in the schools? It is unbelievable. Basic things need to be done, but if the Government trusts and listens to schools, does not see this as cost containment and does not see children as numbers, there might be some chance the schools will believe the Government is not going to have them in the same place in a year's time.

Deputy Seamus Healy

I am genuinely shocked at the Minister's response to this motion. Last week, the Government and the Minister spread fear, trepidation, confusion and chaos across this country for parents, special needs assistants and entire school communities. There is not even a mention of an apology or an "I am sorry" in her contribution. That is disappointing, to say the least. It indicates to me that the Government does not understand what it has done to parents, special needs assistants and school communities over the past couple of weeks.

Parents of children with special needs have to fight and advocate for everything for their child. The minute they discern the slightest problem, there is anxiety, stress and sleepless nights. Then they have to look for an assessment of need for which there are huge waiting lists of over two and a half years, even though time and early intervention are absolutely vital. Many of them have to scrimp and scrape to go privately for an assessment and a diagnosis. Then they have to fight to get a school place. They may have to go to the High Court for that. When they get a school place it may be anything up to 25 miles from their home. I had a case of that only last year. Parents are under pressure from day one and are running on empty, with huge levels of stress, anxiety and sleeplessness.

Earlier today, the Taoiseach refused to answer the core question in this whole issue. Again, the Minister refused to address it in her contribution this evening. The core issue is the criteria by which a child with special needs is allocated a special needs assistant. The current situation is simply untenable and unacceptable. It is outdated, too narrow and does not reflect the duties currently being carried out by special needs assistants in our schools. The contribution of the Minister indicates to me that last week's pause was simply a cynical exercise to buy time, and that the climbdown last night, welcome as it is, was forced by protests on the streets and protests promised for tomorrow and the weekend.

The current situation, where a child with autism who is overwhelmed, a child who is anxious and unable to learn without adult support, a child who needs help with communications, a child who needs help with social understanding or a child who needs help with emotional distress or sensory difficulty does not qualify for a special needs assistant, simply has to change. That is what the protests are about, and those protests are going to continue until that situation changes.

Deputy Michael Collins

If Deputy Tóibín does not arrive, Deputy Flynn will probably take his time.

What has happened over the past few weeks with regard to special needs assistants has been nothing short of disgraceful. Families, schools and SNAs were thrown into turmoil because the National Council for Special Education sent out letters telling up to 200 schools that they would lose SNA support next year. In some cases, schools were staring down the loss of half of their entire SNA team, a blow no community could possibly absorb. It was not common sense from the Government that stopped these cuts. It was the people - the parents, SNAs, teachers and communities who stood up. Tens of thousands of people signed petitions and protests were being organised up and down the country. The pressure became too big, and only then did the Government finally blink and pull the handbrake. Now we are told that no school will lose an SNA in September and that an additional €19 million in funding will be provided to protect those posts. That is welcome but, if we are honest, this is an embarrassing, last-minute U-turn that should never have been needed in the first place.

One of the many emails I received from parents stated:

Dear Michael, I'm contacting you in relation to the national issue of reduced SNAs in our primary school. To say this is an issue of the utmost importance would be a grossly misrepresenting statement. As a parent of a child who for the last two years has been availing of the SNA service within our school - a local primary school - I find the prospect of reducing the very necessary numbers of assistants in future disgraceful. My son who's now aged six has been within the catchment of the special needs programme since he began primary school and has flourished with the help of an already under pressure service. Over the last two years, we have seen our son grow up in a system where he now looks forward to attending school in the morning as he is being equipped with the necessary skills to interact with students, teachers and parents alike. This has been a godsend for both my wife and I. To see my son benefit from the little extra attention that is most certainly needed on a daily basis has been eye-opening as to the benefits of the service. The benefits of this are making and retaining friends, coping under pressure, with social interactions, emotional support and regulation, academic performance and general mental health and well-being. These are but a few of the benefits that we as parents see on the most superficial level and are not yet aware of the long-term benefits that this will most certainly have on our son but are confident that the benefits will be massive. I'm asking you to help get the government to reassess and reconsider the proposed actions for the benefit of Ireland's future generations.

This is a generation that the Minister cannot and must not let fall between the cracks of society. SNAs do not constitute another luxury. They are essential. They are the difference between a child getting through the school day with dignity and support or being left behind. Anyone who works with SNAs, especially in rural Ireland, knows the enormous weight they carry. This should never have been treated as a line item that one can cut on a spreadsheet, yet that is exactly what happened.

We are told the measure has been paused but a pause is not a fix, as has been pointed out. The entire framework behind SNA allocation is out of date and unworkable and is leaving families in constant fear that their support will be taken away year after year. The Government should not congratulate itself on reversing a mistake it should never have made. It should fix the system, scrap the broken allocation model and give schools and families the certainty they deserve, not reviews, pauses or panicked letters landing on principals' desks.

I was speaking to a teacher over the weekend who has two SNAs in her classroom. She told me that there is no way she could teach her other students and help the two children in her classroom that needed help. Deputy Boyd Barrett said the Government should trust schools and teachers. That is where the breakdown is happening here. I was on a board of management for long enough, so I know how difficult it is to run a school. The Government does not trust these people and this was built on the back of untrustworthy carry-on.

Deputy Ken O'Flynn

I welcome that the Minister went into reverse gear at the last minute last night in the wake of threats of large protests. Members of this House and councillors, certainly Independent Ireland councillors, have received emails on this issue from various parents all over the country, including those in my own constituency, from Ballincollig to Whitechurch and from north Cork to east Cork to west Cork. People from Kerry have contacted me. A total of 200 schools are affected. One thinks of the number of parents, principals and SNAs who were affected. Last night's announcement by the Minister's office led to a sigh of relief from a number of people. These parents really do have enough on their plate. Someone who is looking after a child with special needs or additional needs has enough to worry about without somebody from the Department drawing a line, making that child a statistic or figure and deciding whether he or she is ill enough or weak enough or whether his or her problem is big enough or acceptable. Deputies Boyd Barrett and Michael Collins said it; trust is now gone. The little line of trust that was there, between parents and the Department of Education, is now gone, as is the trust between the principals and the Department. Trust between SNAs and the Department has certainly gone, given the way SNAs have been treated. Rebuilding that trust takes more than a half-winged apology in the House this evening. As one Deputy said, the Minister did not even have the courtesy to say "sorry", put up her hands and say she got it wrong. It would have been better if she had done that.

The Minister confirmed that there are 23,000 SNAs working in schools. This is a lot of people who are working for a nine-month period and being paid over 12 months. They are low-paid workers who are sometimes treated well in schools and sometimes treated not as well as they should be. These people are at the front line. They make up a marginal workforce but they are the backbone of inclusion in this State. We find ourselves underpinning the State on the work of these people.

One thing the Minister did not mention was the 20,000 children who remain on waiting lists for an assessment of need. This is not an abstract figure. It involves children waiting for recognition and support and waiting for the State to respond. We cannot describe ourselves as a system that is child-centred with thousands of children on waiting lists at the front door of this Department.

Over the past two weeks, I have heard from people all over my constituency and beyond. The one message was that this cannot go on. This has been going on since Circular 0030/2014. Classrooms have changed and needs have become more complex. Diagnoses of autism have increased and population growth has accelerated well beyond the projected figures we had for 2026. We have now reached a certain demographic milestone that we did not expect to reach until the next decade. Instead, these numbers have arrived early in our schools and our education planning has not adjusted to keep pace with that. If we had shown the workforce any respect, Circular 0030/2014 would have already been modernised, we would not have to have this debate at this late hour and we would not have to have all these people in the Public Gallery. It is now 2026. The Minister is not unintelligent, so surely she should know Circular 0030/2014 is not fit for purpose. In fact, it is more of a handler's guide book than something that meets the needs that are there. Anyone who has a scintilla of knowledge, knows an SNA or has witnessed what an SNA does knows that the SNA takes the child with a little bit of dyslexia who is frightened of a book and encourages him or her to read and then takes the next step and encourages him or her to read aloud. The work of SNAs is unbelievable, from the soft touch to the word of encouragement. SNAs sit with children with eating disorders and encourage them to eat their lunch but, under Circular 0030/2014, they cannot open the lunch box. That does not make sense. It is not fit for purpose any more.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín

The Government announced its decisions regarding SNAs last week like a wrecking ball. It was an incredible situation where teachers, parents, SNAs and, of course, children were not spoken to. The manner in which the Government presented this information to schools around the country was incredible. It created a wave of stress and panic in many families and many schools last week. The ineptitude of the Government's approach last week was startling and it showed the lack of centrality of families, SNAs and teachers in the Government's plans for this space, as if its plans are divorced from the people they are meant to affect and help in the future. I welcome the Government's U-turn on this but this is a result of that ineptitude.

The reality is that special education in this country is a national scandal. We have a system that does not support children. We have a system that battles children and parents. Just a few weeks ago, parents were forced to sleep outside Leinster House to protest and demand their children's right to education. These are families who have been locked out of education and have received up to 60 rejection letters from schools and children who applied at the age of four to start school and by the age of six had still not secured a school place. That the Department and the State would fail in their constitutional responsibility here is shocking.

What is the reward for those children who had to struggle? Once they finally kicked down the door and gained access to the classroom, the Department's first instinct was to pull the rug from under them and slash SNA supports in certain schools.

It is cruel to give children a seat at the table and then take away the support they need to sit at that table. The State has spent 22 years in non-commencement of the EPSEN Act as a shield against its own responsibilities. Section 2 is not an aspiration; it is a mandate that these children should receive their education in an inclusive environment. By withdrawing SNA support, the Government made an inclusive environment impossible in certain schools, for certain children. The Government is effectively carrying out a backdoor repeal of their rights, telling these children that their place in mainstream education is conditional on a Department spreadsheet rather than their legal entitlements. That is a massive mistake for this Government to make. Each one of these children is a citizen of this country, and the job of the education system is to make sure that each of them reaches their full potential, rather than have a situation where they are in a constant battle with the Government. I ask that we have a proper review of this system and match resources with needs throughout the education system.

Deputy Barry Heneghan

I welcome all the SNAs in the Gallery. I apologise that I could not stop to chat to them; I was running to a committee. I recognised some of them. I was not being rude; I swear. I thank the Minister of State for his visit to St. Michael’s House today. I have often seen him in special schools in north Dublin. It is great to see him there, taking that hands-on approach. What we saw today was the SNAs at work, and the pride they showed could not be more topical for this debate. We saw that investment is needed in Baldoyle and St. Michael’s House. It is needed in St. Michael’s House and across north Dublin, especially, as I am always saying to the Minister of State, in Stapolin Educate Together National School, speaking of SNAs.

Regarding the SNA allocation, I welcome the announcement last night but, as we all know, it is far too often we are reactive rather than proactive. We are putting out fires. This should never have happened. The fear, terror and uncertainty that spread among teachers, parents and students in my constituency and across Ireland should never have occurred. That is important. Someone in the Department has acknowledged that already and I welcome that, but it should never have reached that point. The gap still remains, and I heard other Deputies speak about the 2014 circular which still defines the role of an SNA primarily in terms of care support. That circular is more than a decade old, however, and it is clearly not the case.

SNAs support everything and everyone. They support speech and language and occupational therapies. They facilitate everything. The Minister of State goes to schools; he has seen them. They do everything. They are the extra everything. They are integral members of the school community. I have spoken to some of the SNAs I grew up with, such as Audrey Byrne for example. When I was in the school I asked her what she wanted me to speak about. She was the heart of the school; she was in everything. She is still in the school. She mentioned the fact that it is very difficult for SNAs at the moment. Some of them must arrange voluntary contributions themselves rather than it being directly taken out of their pay. Two professions of teaching working side by side under the same roof and in the same classroom should not face different levels of payroll support when planning for their financial future. It may seem to be just an administrative issue but it speaks volumes about how we value this role. We need to extend beyond policy documents into employment practices. Going to the schools, as the Minister of State is already doing, is going to change that, and I welcome that. The most vulnerable pupils depend on SNAs, and giving a child the right to thrive is the bare minimum. One of the fundamentals of a Government is that we give every single chance to any citizen of this country.

Our schools depend on SNAs. The State depends on SNAs to make inclusive education a reality. There are huge commitments in the programme for Government. I welcome the announcement made last night but it should not have come to that. While I was campaigning before the election - it is the reason I am involved in politics - a woman named Eleanor Lanigan was on the door speaking about SNAs. She is fighting illness at the moment and I wish her a speedy recovery. I know she is watching these proceedings.

Deputy Carol Nolan

Whatever a Government may say and whatever it may have done in the past few days to try to stem the tide of parental fury on this issue, there is no disputing the key point put forward in this motion, namely, that this fiasco has inflicted profound distress and anxiety on vulnerable children through a rigid, clinical and deeply flawed interpretation of care needs criteria. We all welcomed the announcement that there will be no reduction in the number of SNAs for the next school year, and of course we welcome the additional €19 million in funding. However, as has already been noted, this does not address the fundamental issue around access criteria, nor does it make clear where the €19 million will come from - perhaps the school building budget or this summer work scheme; who knows. We need clarity on that. It certainly cannot come from either of those pots.

Indeed, when it comes to children's needs in this State, it seems there is a perpetual state of crisis. We need only mention the blight of child homelessness, the children's disability network teams in Offaly and elsewhere which are grossly understaffed, the CAMHS scandal of overmedicated children, and the school meals programme that is handing out poor quality and mislabelled food. This SNA fiasco is just the latest in a long line of issues where the State is actively failing our children. Trust has been shattered on this issue and it will take more than a severe U-turn, one that could have given Government Ministers whiplash, to repair that trust.

As a former principal and teacher, I see how invaluable the work our SNAs do is. It helps children with special needs to achieve their potential and it supports them. We must ensure SNAs are listened to, respected and given certainty and clarity. Those are the basics.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I thank Sinn Féin for giving us the opportunity to talk about this very important matter. I welcome all the concerned people in the Gallery. I thank all of the SNA teachers, ordinary teachers and principals we have in Kerry for the wonderful work they have been doing for the past great number of years. We all rely on teachers and need them very much.

I am glad the Government paused this case and problem that was raised among our schools in Kerry last week and, indeed, right around the country. A pause is not enough for me. We must get to know how a child deserves an SNA. That is not people arriving into a school like they did a couple of months ago and going into a room by themselves without going to the classrooms or to meet the teachers. They just said who they were and, after an hour and a half, they went off. That did not happen in every school but it happened in a good few of them. I advise the Minister of State of that. This is a real problem for me because we were always brought up with the idea that it is in the Constitution that the children of this country must be treated equally. Not alone are we not doing that now, we are hurting the more disadvantaged children. These are the children who need a bit of help. Different things can be a problem for different children. They can develop certain problems. It is a real issue for young parents when they find there is something wrong with their child and have to get the child assessed and do everything they can to make him or her as good as the rest of the children. That takes too long as it is.

Many other problems arise with little children when they first go to school. In Kerry we have quite a big problem where we have children from other countries who have language difficulties. If we did not have SNA teachers to help them, the rest of the children would be held back. Does the Minister of State understand that? That has to be looked at and brought into the equation to ensure every child gets what they need. Some children have to be helped to go to the bathroom. There are all these little things. Some of them have to be helped to be fed. After a while they get going and pass out other children. That is the truth of it. I am very disappointed and I apologise as a Member of Dáil Éireann for what happened last week. It should not have happened. Our teachers are doing their level best. There was no one of them idle. I do know that in certain schools-----

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy John Paul O'Shea)

I thank the Deputy.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I have three minutes. These two people came into the school from the Department, talked and went around the classrooms. That is not right and it should not happen. The Minister and Minister of State have to take the blame and ensure that does not happen again. That is what I am asking them.

Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan

There has been a lot of commentary tonight to which I have been listening. I welcome everybody in the Gallery. Some of the commentary I agree with while some of it I fundamentally disagree with and, in my three minutes, I will try to explain as much as I can.

As a teacher, I taught for 15 years in a school. I would have had interaction with our autism spectrum disorder, ASD, hub, which we had in Fermoy where I taught for most of my career. I challenge anybody, including the Minister and Minister of State, to find a better example of where an ASD hub is integrated into the mainstream school setting than in Fermoy where I taught. It was right up there with best practice.

I disagree with some of the commentary over the past hour or so. Some people are alleging that we do not value SNAs. As I said, I worked in a classroom environment for 15 years. Some of the best professionals I have worked with over my career have been SNAs. When we were looking at professional development and people doing courses, in many cases, teachers would not do the necessary upskilling that was required. I think of instances where we had to start utilising EpiPens and so on in class. The SNAs were among the first to put up their hands to do many of those tasks. Let us be honest about it; they should not have been doing them. When the Minister and Minister of State are considering this over the next few months, I hope they broaden the circular that has been referenced here. I hope it recognises the reality on the ground in many schools and the practical examples I have just given.

Fundamentally, I have an issue with calling this a review in the first place because a review is something that is ongoing. There was clearly such a gap between the last review and this proposed review that I think we should just call it what it is and should start from scratch and build up again. I do not think a review is the right term for it.

I spoke to both the Minister and Minister of State over the past few weeks in relation to cliff edges in particular, and that is what we experienced here. There were schools, including in my constituency, where two, three or four SNAs were being lost because the gap between the reviews was so big. The Minister and Minister of State should consider some threshold or ceiling. Reviews have always happened. When reviews happened every 12 months, or when they were ongoing by the special educational needs organisers, SENOs, the changes might have been marginal. There might have been 0.25 of a gain of an SNA or 0.25 of a loss of an SNA, depending on the circumstances of the school. The problem, as I said, is the gap is so wide now that we are facing those cliff edges. There needs to be some mechanism built in where we do not face drops of such significance.

I have a serious concern, and I hope to speak about it again tomorrow night, in relation to assessment of need. It is very difficult for SENOs to quantify the need in the absence of diagnosis. We are creating a further problem for ourselves in a couple of years' time. It is quite clear the demands that will be required of a school. If we allow what is being proposed to happen, where resources could be agreed by principals, SENOs and school management, in the absence of diagnosis we are actually going to create another problem further down the line and that needs to be re-examined.

Minister of State at the Department of Education and Youth (Deputy Michael Moynihan)

I thank Sinn Féin for the opportunity to contribute to the debate this evening. Debates like these are essential to reflect on the deeply held priorities for our communities. I want to state absolutely clearly that this Government is fully committed to supporting children with additional needs.

This commitment is not merely a matter of policy but a matter of principle and is reflected in the continuing record-breaking increase in the number of SNAs in our classrooms, an unprecedented investment we are delivering for special education. My senior Minister, the Minister, Deputy Naughton, is deeply committed to it and in her previous life as Chief Whip I know her commitment, on a personal level, to children with additional needs. I want to put that record on today. Furthermore, as I indicated last week, there will be no reductions in SNAs in September 2026 to 2027, and for any school that has been granted an increase, that will be honoured as well.

To the SNAs, I say they are the heartbeat of our school communities. They provide essential care and support that allow students with additional educational needs to participate fully in the school life. Since my appointment 12 months ago, I have visited almost 120 schools across the country. In every classroom I entered, from Cavan to Cork, I saw first hand the transformative impact special needs assistants have. I have seen children who, without this dedicated support, simply would not be able to attend mainstream schools. I want to place on the record my immense respect for the SNA workforce. They are professionals who give their all to the children they support. They are invaluable. This is exactly why it is so important that we ensure we have the right support in the right place at the right time. I might come back to that point in a few moments.

On the redeployment scheme, I think we all agree that the needs of the schools are never static. They evolve as students graduate or new children enrol and as the individual needs of students change over time. Much like the way we see teachers being redeployed due to a drop in numbers of enrolments, the need for schools can change to a degree that the level of SNA provision is reduced or indeed increased. This was an annual occurrence up to 2020. I understand wholeheartedly that this can be difficult news for a school and we must ensure schools do not face a cliff edge. It is vitally important to have a redeployment scheme in place. We must make sure that the redeployment scheme is out there within the shortest possible time.

Much has been discussed in relation to the 2014 circular and there has been significant criticism of it this evening and across public discourse over the past while. While I hear those concerns, it is also vitally important to remember that this circular has been the foundation for the most massive growth of SNA support in the history of the State. Since its introduction in 2014, we have added 14,000 new SNAs to our schools, with a 45% increase since 2020 alone. This is a huge investment. We must be careful not to undermine the very framework that has allowed this support to scale so rapidly. I also assure the House that there has been no change in how the circular has been interpreted or implemented.

However, we recognise the landscape of education has changed in a decade. That is why, as part of our first ever SNA workforce development plan, we are reviewing the circular in the context of the evolving role of the SNA. This has not been a top-down process; it has involved wide consultation and engagement. A working group comprising the stakeholders, including union representatives, SNAs and school management bodies, has met over 15 times over the past number of years to progress this work. They have examined every nuance of the role - how the SNA interacts with the wider school community team to the specific range of support required by the students.

We have seen huge investment in special education. We have seen an increase of 58% in five years. We have to acknowledge that. While we take all the criticism, please accept that we have, at the very core, the idea of special education and we know the importance of it.

I want to talk about the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and I know many Deputies across the House work and engage with the NCSE and its teams individually on behalf of their constituents on an ongoing basis. I have always had huge respect for the work of the NCSE going back over many years. We have seen a significant increase in its staffing to meet the rising demands across our system. The review process is not a cold, administrative task; it is a robust, professional assessment. It is important that we acknowledge the work of the team from the very top and the way they have worked over the past number of years to see increased special classes, special schools and enrolment. Their dedication and commitment not just at the top but right through the system is something that we have to accept.

We are going to continue to support children through the expanded summer programme, which has become a lifeline for families; a comprehensive review of the assistive technology to ensure we are using the best possible tools available; and the implementation plan for the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, ESPEN, Act, which has also taken place.

I, like Deputies across the House, come to this debate at an extremely personal level. I have taken some of the comments that have been made over the last week or so on the chin as a public representative. However, from my engagement with the Minister, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, over the weeks and months since her appointment as Minister for education, I know that she is somebody we can work extremely well with.

We understand the challenges facing families. To the SNAs, I would say that I have seen first-hand the massive work they are doing, the length and breadth of the country. We were in Limerick recently and I saw an SNA putting together a chair for a child. The chair had come in a box and the SNA was putting that chair together for the child. I understand the amount of work they do, the length and breadth of the country, in every single school. If anyone says we are disrespecting them, we are certainly not. We have at the heart of this what the SNAs are doing, but we also have at the heart of it the challenges that are faced by every single family with children with special educational needs. They have battles from day one in terms of assessments of need. The one thing that has arisen in the course of the debate, in public discourse and in commentary is that we have to make sure that our education system is built in such a way that the best possible outcome for the child is at its very core.

Children who were not getting supports heretofore went on to have a very difficult adulthood, or went on to day care or other challenges. They need to get the right support within the educational system. We have seen many changes within the system in recent years, and we are going to continue that. I can assure those in the Gallery, those who will be protesting tomorrow, those who have contacted us and the school communities that I have engaged with right through my political life, not just now, that we are going to work, day and night, to ensure this happens.

As I said in some of the public comments I made during the week, there is no point in my coming out with something that is not going to work. We have to come out with something that everybody has confidence in. That means redeployment and the issue in regard to the circular. It also means that we have at the very core of our education system the child who needs it. I know the struggles that families have because, like all Deputies in the House, I engage continuously with families. We have to make it easier, and we have to take the fear and concern out of it. I would ask everyone to work with us because we do not intend to let them down.

Deputy Pa Daly

The Government's decision to pause and reverse its recent approach is, without question, a welcome reprieve, but let us be absolutely clear - that is all it is. It is a pause, an easing of pressure, not a solution. Behind the belated U-turn lies a deeper reality. The Government’s approach to special needs education remains fragile, stretched, unclear and ad hoc. In the middle of the system are the people who hold the system together - the SNAs, the teachers, the parents and the children, whose needs should be at the centre of every decision made. We recognise them. We recognise and acknowledge their determination, organisation and refusal to stay silent.

The first I heard of this was two weeks ago, when the whole school community from Fossa National School contacted me. Since then, pupils and teachers from Asdee, Fossa, Glenflesk, Portmagee and even Glasheen in Cork have contacted me. It was their voices that stopped the changes, which were unfair, unworkable and unacceptable. Families, schools and pupils deserve certainty, stability, clarity and continuity of care, not another temporary fix. That means returning to the drawing board, reviewing the outdated frameworks, halting the redeployment policies that created chaos and fear, rather than support and structure, and engaging in consultation with the schools, which understand their students’ needs better than anyone.

I spoke to the principal of a school who said that children who are leaving preschool with their AIM workers are then left to swim in the mainstream without an SNA. He described that system as the height of blackguarding. Another teacher told me that there needs to be a serious review. She said the upset caused by the communication, and particularly the response by the Taoiseach, was very traumatic for all. She spoke of hours of teaching time lost to form-filling and appeals from May to December, with the most vulnerable left without SETs while the forms are being completed. She also referred to the offhand and dismissive comment by the Taoiseach. We need inclusive educational diversity, which is listed as a core value, but the Government’s actions suggest otherwise.

Deputy Réada Cronin

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí Ní Raghallaigh agus O’Rourke as an rún seo a chur chun cinn. Cuirim fáilte roimh na SNAs agus gabhaim buíochas leo as an obair atá ar siúl acu.

The past two weeks have been a truly worrying time for many parents, SNAs and teachers across the State. The uncertainty of the SNA allocations for September has shown that the Government does not value the work that SNAs do to support students with additional needs. Individual TDs might, but, collectively, the Government does not. That is the transparency that people are seeing.

It is the teachers who are already trying to do their jobs in the largest class sizes in Europe who will be asked to pick up the pieces should schools lose SNAs. I have spoken with parents, teachers and SNAs from Leixlip to Kilcock, and all the way down to Naas. We had almost 1,400 parents at an online meeting last night. We heard from anxious parents who say they feel the Government does not care about their children, and that their children are being stripped of their dignity due to the lack of respect. These are SNAs who themselves have children with special needs, and that is what brought them to that call. Most mams were almost in tears, and many parents succumbed to those tears.

Let us leave aside the genuine worries of SNAs, teachers and parents for the moment and think about who this is really damaging. This is about vulnerable children, citizens of this State. That is who is being punished here at the end of the day, just because they have additional needs. It would be a fundamental assault on their human rights and their constitutional right to education if we were to take the SNAs they have in school away from them. These are the children who rely on the hard, diligent work of SNAs every single day when they come through the gates of mainstream schools. They are already being badly treated. This is unacceptable.

A piece of advice for this awful Government: do not take on the parents of children with special needs. You will not win.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

I welcome the SNAs. I welcome the pressure that was brought by SNAs and others on the Government that has led to this pause and reprieve, but it is not a solution. We need to see the ins and outs of the workforce development plan. We need to see a proper, workable redeployment scheme. We have to deal with the failures of the 2014 circular. This is clear to anyone who has heard the testimonies from schools where children were to lose SNA support if they did not fit into primary care. That is the reality. That is what was happening.

I can speak about my own son, Turlough. He is 17 now and is in transition year in Ó Fiaich College. He was in a language class in St. Joseph’s and later in mainstream. He could not have done that without what the SNAs did. Let us say it. It was not always plain sailing. In fairness to my wife, she probably carried the slack for a lot of it. At this point in time, as I said, he is in transition year, working on business development projects and going away on trips. He would be able to do none of this, and he would not actually be in education to the same degree, without the SNAs. We need to recognise what they do. We need to put a proper framework in place. The nicest thing I can say about the communications is that they were an absolute mess. We need to look after those people because they look after our children.

Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

We have heard a lot today from all sides of the House. I know there are Government representatives who respect the role of SNAs and have engaged with them. We have heard a lot about the various things they do. So much of this hinges on the idea of primary care, the limitations there have been and how that has constrained the approach the Department has taken. We know the many ways in which they are crucial in assisting people with movement breaks, with education and with all of those healthcare needs.

In so many respects, they keep the classroom together and keep the lid on so many behavioural issues. For a child who has ADHD and is under pressure, the assistance they get from an SNA ensures they are able to engage fully with their education. In all those contributions, I do not think anyone on any side of this House would say that we should go backwards or that we should constrain the SNA to the role they used to have at the outset of the proposal of the position. We all recognise that the role of the SNA has evolved a great deal in the past 20 or 30 years to what it is in this day and age. How absurd it is that the review was based on such tight criteria when we all know the role is far greater than that. That absurd approach led to a situation where schools such as that in Glasheen in my constituency were looking at four people potentially. As far as they were concerned, in terms of the way it was communicated, they would be out of a job and those children would not get the support they needed. The Minister is shaking her head but that is how it was communicated. That is how it was understood. That is true right across the State.

Where do we need to go from here? A pause is not enough. I hope the Minister understands that from this debate. We need to fundamentally begin from the proposition of what the modern SNA does, how crucial their role is and from there decide the appropriate allocation.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

I thank everyone who contributed to the debate. I want to pick up on a number of comments from the Minister in my closing remarks. I am deeply disappointed with both contributions. The senior Minister who has responsibility said in her comments that, "At the forefront of our deliberations was ensuring that the child-centred approach to the provision of special education is retained and enhanced in these policy developments." No one believes that. The Minister needs to talk to and listen to people. She said, "This Government has nothing but respect for SNAs, special education teachers, schools, students and their families." There was an audible laugh from the Gallery in relation to that. The Gallery is made up of SNAs and some teachers. The Minister needs to hear what is being said there. She said that, "To say that the Government is not funding resources for children with special educational needs is a mistruth." Less than 24 hours ago, this Government could not confirm that schools would not lose SNAs in September. SNAs for children who needed support were being cut for want of €19 million. To say that is a mistruth is very far from reality. The Minister is not opposing this motion tonight. Is it because she supports it? Is it because she is going to implement its proposals? Is it because she is ready for a reset? No, no and no. She is not opposing the motion because she does not want to be held accountable for her position in relation to this. There is a step-change on this issue. Communities, parents, SNAs and school communities are organised. They will, and we will, hold the Government to account.

Question put and agreed to.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Tuesday, 24 Feb 2026

Special Needs Assistants: Motion [Private Members]

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 24 Feb 2026