Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24 ============================================================ Ivana Bacik (LAB), Dublin Bay South Before we begin, I again express the Labour Party's solidarity with Ukraine as we mark the fourth anniversary today of Russia's full-scale invasion. As Ukraine enters its fifth year under Putin's brutal bombardment, our thoughts today must be with all those bereaved, injured or displaced by this horrific war in Europe. Last night was the latest climbdown in the special education saga. SNAs, principals, teachers and parents who spent a week in fear now know that their children will at least not lose SNA supports this year. That relief is thanks to them and their insistence that the Government must listen to their campaigning and advocacy. Unfortunately, our school communities are having to get good at campaigning. In a year, they have had to mobilise for their SNAs, caretakers and school secretaries and the Labour Party has supported school communities every step of the way. These SNA cuts were first raised in this Chamber by my Labour Party colleagues, Deputies Eoghan Kenny and Mark Wall. While we welcome the news late last night that there will be no immediate SNA cuts this September, the Government's latest U-turn raises further questions about how such drastic reductions were signed off on in the first place. It is was the Taoiseach's Government that directed the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, to carry out this review. It approved the approach and so, as we know, schools received letters without warning telling them they were losing a classroom lifeline. Some were threatened with a cut to half their SNA staffing. All were threatened with cuts without warning or consultation and only after a national uproar did the Government reverse course. This is not a good look for Fianna Fáil. The Taoiseach's party used to have a good story to tell on education, with Donogh O'Malley's achievements, for example, which I have always acknowledged. Fianna Fáil used to have a vision on education but now when we think of Fianna Fáil, or indeed Fine Gael, we think of prefabs, paused renovations, poor pay for school secretaries and caretakers and now this. While this €19 million buffer has bought the Government 12 months, schools have no long-term certainty because the Government has not actually fixed anything. It has merely kicked the can down the road. It has kicked the problem into next year, hoping, no doubt, that the anger will fade. I can tell the Taoiseach now, and we know it in the Opposition, that it will not fade. We already have a special education system lurching from crisis to crisis. We already have parents who are exhausted, worn out, having to fight so hard for the supports their children need. They and the schools need certainty and clarity, but we have been coming up against brick walls in trying to get clarity from the Taoiseach. We have specific questions. Where is this €19 million coming from? Is it being pulled from the already stretched special education teacher allocation budget? What happens to the schools that are due an increase in SNA posts next year? Where are the additional SNAs coming from? How will this redeployment scheme work? Will the Taoiseach guarantee that these are new posts, not taken from other classrooms? A pause is not a plan. This is just an extended pause. Schools and children need clarity. Will the Taoiseach provide it? --- 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/dail/2026-02-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-24