Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24
============================================================

John Lahart (FF), Dublin South-West

I thank the Minister of State for his presence tonight. I wish to focus in on one particular aspect as well, that is, serious concerns regarding the credibility of the review process that was initiated. In the absence of nursing provision in the school, the school engaged in what was an extremely detailed and arduous SNA review process in an effort to secure additional SNA support. Deputy Crowe referred to this. Parents were asked to complete extensive questionnaires outlining in detail the significant and complex needs of their children. These are families we know are already under enormous strain. That documentation identified as part of the review process was not considered by the review panel. It is still sitting in the principal’s office. Despite this, a determination was made to reduce that school's allocation. When it was challenged by the principal and pointed out it had made a determination without the full documentation, the decision was subsequently reversed. That alone really needs to be investigated. We all have a few other points to make in the second round.

---

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