Education (Leave for Injuries) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. It is great to have her here and I thank her for her proactive approach to the Bill. It is great that she will allow it to pass Second Stage. I know how hard Senator Harmon has worked on this legislation and it is an absolute privilege for me to have met Sophie and Shane to hear their story. Sophie is a true inspiration. I am fully in support of calling it Sophie's Law when it is enacted. I welcome and thank all of the SNAs from Fórsa and the teachers from the INTO. Without their support, this Bill would not have got this far. I know the Minister has engaged proactively with the union representatives as well. I welcome my Labour Party colleagues to the House because, as Senator Harmon said, this is a workers' rights issue. Since this the debate on First Stage, I have been contacted by teachers and SNAs from all over my constituency. I spent a long time working in schools. The common thread is that SNAs and teachers love their job. That is very clear. It is a great idea that the name will be changed because teachers and SNAs do not want to blame anyone. I will relay the experience of a home economics teacher from my constituency. She has a very similar story to Sophie and she has given me permission to speak about it today as well. She stated: Last February, I was assaulted by an adult autistic student in the classroom. I suffered a blunt force trauma to my right wrist. I was in horrific pain. The next day, I attended accident and emergency in Letterkenny, was x-rayed and put in a splint. The teacher went on to explain that, thanks to the excellent care of her GP, she had an MRI which showed ligament and cartilage tears and a partial bone dislocation. Following steroid injections into the joint and surgery to repair a large tear, it was hoped that the dislocated bone would relocate when the inflammation subsided. Despite six months of physiotherapy, the pain and lack of wrist function continued. One year on, the ulna bone is still out of position, fluid and inflammation are still present, a tendon is inflamed and possibly out of position and wrist ligaments are showing chronic tearing. Another operation is scheduled for this March to cut nerves to the wrist. If that does not reduce the pain, a third operation to fuse the bones together will be required. This operation is a last resort and is normally reserved for elderly patients, as it will cause a significant reduction in wrist mobility. Following her six months' assault leave and 50 days of sick leave, she returned to work on limited duty, unable to do the home economics classes she loved, as she remained unable to lift, cut and sew as a result of the assault. Remaining on sick leave was not an option. Being on half pay meant she could not meet her young family’s needs. To finish in her own words: I have been eating pain killers and in constant pain since I went back to work. I will have to use my own sick leave again, and possibly go to half pay, for my operation next month. I have medical bills of €2,200, as well as 4,000 km of mileage from seven round trips to Galway. As well as the medical expenses and loss of earnings mentioned, this teacher has experienced other financial losses as she is unable to complete State examinations work, which she always did. On a number occasions, she had to stay overnight in Galway. The teacher reached out after she heard about this legislation, which shows how important it is. She is one of many. We all know it is impossible to completely remove the risk of an injury occurring in a school environment but we can put in place systems that support educational professionals following an incident which leaves them in need. Senator Harmon's Bill does this. I thank the trade unions again for how much work they put into the Bill, which will recognise the duty of care the State has towards education providers. For too long, educational professionals have been left to deal with the consequences of an incident on their own. The Bill addresses this. I thank Senator Harmon, Sophie and all of the SNAs and teachers who educate our children as best they can and for which our country is so well renowned. --- 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