Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I join the Deputy in welcoming Rush Tidy Towns to Leinster House.
It has been an extraordinarily upsetting and difficult week for parents of children with additional needs, for SNAs, for the children themselves, for teachers and for school communities. That is why it was really important to pause and get this right. The first thing I want to say is that we will see more SNAs in our schools next September than this September. The second thing I want to say is that no SNA should lose their job or will lose their job. In fact, we need more people to be willing to put their hand up to become a SNA. We need to provide them with the job security that is required for that to happen. Any approach to any review has to be child centred. There was significant feedback around the country that this was not the experience of schools on the ground. I say this to be constructive.
Like the Deputy in his constituency, I am aware of schools that sought reviews because they know they need more SNAs. This review cannot be some sort of one-way street. It has to be about identifying the care needs of the children in the school and matching the resource to the care needs. Also, and this should have happened quite frankly in advance of the review, it has to be done in conjunction with a redeployment plan for SNAs. This is something that I believe is almost there. I hope that is a fair characterisation. It is very nearly there. We need that redeployment scheme in place. It will be the first time that we have ever had one. It will put our SNAs quite rightly on a par with teachers, for example. Again, for the first time ever, there will be a proper special education workforce plan. They are two key components that have to be put in place to get any form of child-centred review right as well.
I fully recognise the vital role our SNAs play in supporting children with special educational needs. I fully recognise that there are children who would not have been in a position to complete their education successfully, whether in a mainstream school or a special school, were it not for the SNAs. I fully recognise the very valuable work they do. We are increasing the number of SNAs. We are going to see nearly 25,000 in our schools from September. We are also increasing the budget. However, I take the Deputy's point that this is at a macro level and that we have to see how it applies individually, school by school and child by child. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, listened this week. They listened to the upset, anxiety, concern and anger and they rightly took the action to pause. We are going to get this right over the next number of weeks in that the approach to the review will be child-centred, there will be an SNA redeployment scheme and we will finally have a proper workforce plan for special education. We will intensively engage with stakeholders in the weeks ahead to get this right.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-19