Special Needs Assistants: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Galway West I thank the Cathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity to inform and update the Seanad on the special needs assistant role in our schools and the important work my Department has progressed in this area. I welcome the opportunity to listen to the views of Senators here today. I understand people were angry and frustrated at what they perceived as the removal of essential supports from students. That is why I want to assure this House that no cuts are proposed, or will be proposed, to the provision of SNA support to children and young people across our school system. My Department is fully committed to supporting children with special educational needs, and we will implement our programme for Government commitments to deliver on this objective. As a teacher myself, I know the value of SNAs, teachers and special education teachers. I know that children thrive in school thanks to the supports provided by dedicated, hard-working school staff. I also know how vital these dedicated staff are in helping young people gain independence and confidence in the classroom and in their life beyond school. In addition to these reassurances, I want to respond to some misinformation about how the Government is supposedly cutting supports, undermining SNAs and failing to invest in our education system. This Government and my Department have the utmost respect for SNAs, teachers, special education teachers, schools, students and their families. I fully appreciate, endorse and share my Department's insistence that special education policies are child-centred and designed to assist young people to thrive in school and to help them to reach their full potential. This year, we will invest more than €3 billion to support children. Funding has never been higher, and it represents almost a quarter of the entire education budget. To clarify, Government was not in any manner proposing to make hundreds of SNAs redundant, a measure which would be counteractive to all we are trying to achieve. We are working to strike that balance between managing resources and ensuring those students with the highest level of need are supported in our schools. To be clear, 23,179 SNAs were allocated to schools for the 2025-26 school year. Last year, 21,579 SNAs were allocated and, next September, the allocation will increase again to 24,896. Working alongside almost 22,000 special educational teachers, this September will see almost 25,000 SNAs in our schools play a key role in supporting children and young people with care needs. It is important to mention the important role of the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, in this regard. The NCSE has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on the education provision and care support for children and young people with special educational needs, and for the allocation of SNA support to schools. I fully support the NCSE in its work with schools. As a teacher, I could not stand over cuts to special education services, and Government has repeatedly stated that improving the lives of people with a disability or a special educational requirement is a priority. As Senators are aware, Government has agreed measures which will give clarity to school communities. These measures are: all schools reviewed by the NCSE and allocated additional resources will receive them in the upcoming school year; no reductions will come into effect in the 2026-27 school year; and the SNA redeployment scheme, the SNA workforce development plan and changes to the 2014 circular outlining the role of a SNA will be advanced before any further decisions are taken. Over the past two years, my Department has been working diligently to progress the first special needs workforce development plan, which is scheduled for delivery in 2026. Overall, this plan will include consideration of how best SNAs can work together with school leaders, teachers, students and the whole school community to ensure they can provide the most effective service to children and young people with special educational needs. The plan covers five pillars or main areas: review and development of the SNA role; establishment of a quality framework; establishment of an SNA learning and development programme; supporting SNA recruitment, retention and diversity; and development of a communications strategy. The initial phase of this work involved substantial research and analysis which fed into the collaborative phase and informed all the proposals for the final plan. This consultation was vital to include the voice of the SNAs working in the schools, as well as that of the students, parents, guardians, school leaders and teachers. Research was followed by significant collaboration with all the key stakeholders. Each of the five pillars of the plan were represented by a working group which included representatives from the school management bodies, Fórsa representatives and SNAs. The working groups met 54 times over the past two years. There were also two stakeholder groups providing feedback on the proposals for the plan, which met four times each over the course of the work of the plan. The first of these stakeholder groups consisted of teacher unions, school leadership and representative bodies, student body representatives and special needs advocacy groups. The second group consisted wholly of SNAs from different sectors in the education system. This extensive collaboration was vital to deliver a robust SNA workforce development plan. In relation to the review of the SNA role, research on the plan has shown that there is a strong need for clarity, transparency and consistency around the SNA role, which is currently set out in Circular 30/2014. An extensive review has been completed in collaboration with stakeholders to provide clarity on the SNA role and duties, and to account for the evolved role of the SNA. The new circular, entitled Supporting Guidance, will support best practice in the role. To complement this work, we will also establish a robust SNA redeployment scheme to facilitate the redeployment of eligible SNAs from schools with surplus posts. As is evident from the SNA reviews, the level of SNA support required in a school may reduce year on year due to children having left the school or the care needs of the students having diminished. Conversely, schools may require a higher level of support when the level of care needs increase, new students join the school or new needs emerge. Other than the ETBI redeployment scheme, at present there is no formal redeployment scheme. The introduction of this scheme will have many benefits. Students and school communities will benefit as vacant posts are filled by SNAs who are trained, experienced and skilled. The scheme will increase job security for SNAs and reduce redundancies. Schools will also have less of an administrative burden for recruitment to fill vacant posts. I am pleased to confirm that the drafting of the plan and the actions under each of the pillars is now at an advanced stage and I am engaging with the unions to progress the plan to its final stages. Given the significant work on these important initiatives and the benefits they will bring to SNAs and school communities, I am determined to publish the SNA workforce plan as soon as possible and I look forward to hearing the views of the Senators. --- 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/2026-03-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-04