Special Educational Needs
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18
============================================================

Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

In relation to the value of the SNAs, absolutely. When I started out on my political journey, it was people who were on community employment, CE, schemes who were providing the SNA support within schools. A decision was taken by the now Taoiseach, then the Minister for education, back in 1997 or 1998 about SNAs. We have grown that to almost 25,000 SNAs across this country. In any comparison with any of the other developed countries in Europe or elsewhere, we are way ahead in terms of the support we are giving into classrooms and to make sure the most vulnerable are getting it. The redeployment scheme will be in operation from 1 September. Any SNA who is being redeployed from one school will have an opportunity to redeploy. That scheme is in place. That scheme has been worked through over the past 18 months or so with the unions and all concerned. That redeployment scheme will be in place.
On the work we have to do, we have paused because we listened very carefully to the concerns. I spoke to principals, parents and SNAs right across the country - not just in my own area in Cork North-West - over the weekend and prior to that. In engagements this week on Monday, we met a number of school principals. They outlined the challenges that they have within the schools. The appeals system is there to make sure that anybody who is dissatisfied with a decision or if they have further information, that they can submit to the National Council for Special Education. It is a robust appeals system. All those decisions are being looked at. Right now, everything is being paused. We want to be very clear when we have that done what the process will be. The integrity of the process is important as well.
Over many years, the National Council for Special Education has delivered special education and reviewed cases. When care needs move on from primary school to post-primary school, we must make sure that the SNA or the support is given to the most vulnerable in their school settings. Everything we are doing is for the child within the school setting to make sure they are getting the best access to the education. We have to look at the outcomes for children and the supports they will get in primary school and post-primary school. It is not the case that it is the school community; it is always the students who we have at the very heart of it. I am desperately passionate about making sure that the very core of our systems and the integrity of the systems, which have been there for quite some time, are targeted towards the children. We will see the provision of that right across.

---

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/seanad/2026-02-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-18