Education (Leave for Injuries) Bill 2025: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-18 ============================================================ Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Galway West I thank Senators for the opportunity to speak today and respond to the Education (Leave for Injuries) Bill 2025, which has been proposed by Senators Laura Harmon, Nessa Cosgrove, Patricia Stephenson and Malcolm Noonan, and indeed the many Senators across the House who have raised this important issue with me in recent weeks and months. Before I begin, I want to express my own personal thanks and gratitude to Sophie, who is in the Visitors' Gallery today. Sophie has been steadfast in her campaign for better conditions for teachers and SNAs who may have suffered an injury in the classroom. I had the honour of meeting Sophie and her husband, Shane, earlier today. Hearing their experiences at first hand has only reinforced my commitment to working with Sophie, alongside teachers and SNAs across the country, with a view to making life easier for those who are out of work as a result of an injury, and to ensure that we are responding with fairness and understanding while we do that. For example, Sophie, and indeed others, have rightly highlighted that is not fair that an injured person should bear the medical burden of treatment in the aftermath of a school-based injury, only for those costs to be later recouped through the school’s insurance. To that end, I have tasked my Department to examine options to ensure that access to treatment and support is provided without delay or financial hardship. At the outset, I wish to acknowledge the vitally important and challenging role that SNAs, teachers and school staff play in helping to educate our young people and equip them with the learning and skills they need to thrive in adult life. Every day these dedicated staff work with children and young people from all walks of life and from every background in schools across our country. Some young people face challenges that others do not. Some require little or no support, and others more. However, the nearly 1 million pupils in our primary, post-primary and special schools are lucky to be assisted by these dedicated, hard-working professionals. Their work means that the vast bulk of young people have a positive school experience. However, unfortunately, there are incidents whereby during the course of their work, teachers and SNAs may incur an injury requiring an absence of leave in order to recover. I appreciate that this Bill has been drafted with the very best intentions for teachers or SNAs in an approved position of employment in a recognised school to establish standards for any scheme providing for leave of absence from work following injury. I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of the Senators in relation to the proposed Bill. The Government and my Department recognises that any injury received by a teacher or SNA in the course of their duties has the potential to have a significant impact on them, both physically and mentally. I also fully appreciate that in the vast majority of cases, any injury unfortunately suffered by a teacher or SNA in the course of their work is not intentional and that using the word "assault" in this context is problematic. I agree with Senators that the more appropriate term in this context is "injuries", rather than "assault". I wish to take this opportunity to outline the measures in place to help avoid injury to any teacher or SNA and highlight the resources in place to assist those may require assistance. A key focus for my Department is equipping teachers and SNAs with the training and tools to help them de-escalate situations which put them and the young people in their care at risk. There are a number of documents available around managing behaviours of concern in schools. In December 2024, the Department of education published the guidelines entitled Understanding Behaviours of Concern and Responding to Crisis Situations in Schools. The National Council for Special Education has published Relate, which is a regulation framework for schools. Separately, Tusla’s education support service, TESS, will shortly publish updated guidance for schools on codes of behaviour. The three documents have a strong focus on prevention, early intervention and de-escalation strategies for the management of behaviour generally. To support the introduction of the guidelines on behaviours of concern, all schools were enabled to attend in-person information sessions in education centres around the country. More of these are planned. The NCSE also procured specialist, bespoke training for special schools and approximately 70 of these schools have availed of this support to date. This training will soon be available to mainstream schools. In addition, the National Council for Special Education is currently providing sustained support on behaviour to 85 special schools. The NCSE also provides seminars and training to support schools and the training available on the Relate framework is proving to be very well received. NEPS, the inspectorate and the NCSE’s behaviour service have developed a training programme for primary teachers which was delivered over summer 2025 and will be available again in the summer of 2026. The focus of the course was, first, on the guidelines on behaviours of concern, second, the NCSE’s Relate framework and, third, TESS’s code of behaviour guidelines. Some 100 teachers attended the programme and rated it as being an excellent support. That said, there are situations where, despite the best efforts of all concerned, a teacher or SNA can suffer an injury during the course of his or her work. To assist these school staff, there is an existing robust non-statutory leave of absence following assault scheme for both SNAs and teachers and an occupational injury scheme for teachers. Both schemes were negotiated through established industrial relations mechanisms in conjunction with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. These schemes provide leave entitlements for three months, or 92 days, at full pay in a rolling four-year period. In exceptional cases, such as where a significant period of hospitalisation is required or in situations of a second or subsequent incident of assault, or injury in the occupational injury scheme, the leave may be extended for a further period not exceeding three months at full pay, subject to an overall limit of six months at full pay in a rolling four-year period. Currently, once the leave entitlement has been exhausted, the teacher or SNA may be able to access the sick leave scheme. In the event of a long-term sick leave absence, the teacher or SNA can avail of temporary rehabilitation remuneration for extended absences and, in the event of long-term injury, can apply for the existing ill-health retirement schemes. It is important to note that in the case of the leave of absence following assault scheme, the scheme does not require that there be an intent to cause a physical injury, merely that there was physical contact from a third party which caused a physical injury to the teacher or SNA. Regarding the occupational injury scheme for teachers, this scheme covers teachers who are physically injured due to an accident in the actual discharge of their duties, including approved school activities, which are not due to negligence on the part of the teacher and by some injury solely attributable to the nature of their duty. In addition to these schemes, an occupational health strategy is also in place as a supportive resource for staff and leaders in schools. The aim of the occupational health strategy is to promote the health and well-being----- --- 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