Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-17
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I said earlier the reviews should be regular to match resources to the needs of children, and new children will come into schools. We have about 4,000 schools with children who leave primary and go into second level, and children develop differently and so on. As the Deputy knows, the SNAs are allocated to the school, so the general number is allocated to the school. Obviously, within the context of the children in the school, additional needs assessments are made.
Part of the problem here is there probably has not been a review for several years and the result has been too severe in respect of some schools. As I said earlier, no school should lose six or four in any one year. Again, depending on the size of the school, and with Scoil Aodh Rua, 2.5 could be a significant hit to that school. I do not have the background and specifics. If an assessment is made by the NCSE that a certain school does not require the number of SNAs it had two or three years ago, it should not hit the school with a shock decision and that it is making the call to take out three or four. It should be done much more gradually.
That would be our approach, and I have communicated that to the Ministers and they agree with me on that and the NCSE. That is the way to proceed here. The Minister for Education and Youth is going to sit down with the NCSE to work this out. The NCSE and SENOs will then engage with the schools concerned to see what we can do.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-17