Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2025-12-10 ============================================================ Charles Ward (RDR), Donegal St. Francis' National School in Barnesmore, County Donegal, is currently facing a crisis due to a severe shortage of special needs assistant, SNA, support. Four children with additional needs started in the school in September but despite this, no additional SNAs have been allocated. The current allocation is inadequate and the children have complex needs. The situation has become very distressing for the families, teachers and SNAs, who are doing everything possible to provide care for the pupils and secure inclusion for all pupils. The strain is too much. The Taoiseach must do what he can to rectify this situation. Will he work with the Department to ensure that schools in Donegal that face shortages will be granted an increase in their SNA allocations? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:27+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-10