Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-19
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Pádraig O'Sullivan (FF), Cork North-Central

I will leave the Minister of State with three points because I know he will be engaging with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and his senior Minister in the next few days. First, the cliff edge that I have spoken to him about regularly cannot be the reality.
The review I spoke to him about which happened every year needs to be consistent so we do not face this cliff edge in the future. At this point, the loss of any SNA is not tenable given the climate and context of what has happened and the lack of trust and the anxiety created. There were always minor movements in the number of SNAs over the years but given the gravity of what has happened and the scale of some of the drops, it is not tenable. I spoke privately to the Minister of State about the lack of a requirement of a diagnosis. That will create problems down the line. We need something clinical and that can generate statistics in order that people can be guided in making these decisions, particularly the SENOs.

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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