Special Needs Assistants: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin I will try to stick to the time. The clock is ticking. The Minister is very welcome. I am speaking on SNA numbers. Sna hochtóidí, bhí mé i mo mhúinteoir bunscoile ar feadh dhá bhliain. Rinne mé céim oideachais i gColáiste na Tríonóide trí mheán na Gaeilge. Táim as cleachtadh le go leor bliain anuas. Déanaim tréaniarracht mo thuairimí a leagan amach go soiléir i mBéarla na banríona. My concern is not just as a former primary school teacher who taught in a school in Lucan, but also as a parent of a child with additional needs who has benefited from, and has been able to access the curriculum because of, the provision of SNAs and that support. In that context, I remind everybody that all of our children have a constitutional right to an education. If a child is denied an SNA on the basis of some administrative interpretation in a circular around the role of the SNA, then the Minister is de facto denying a disabled citizen their constitutional right to an education and she is in breach of the legal provisions set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I am aware that in rejigging the circular on SNAs, there is a fear among many parents that the wording will still revolve round the idea of providing basic care needs, for example, toileting. There is a fear among parents that the understanding of what an SNA is there to provide support to children for is based on a medical model and an ableist model. In revising the circular, I am interested to know there will be a meaningful input. I do not mean having a consultative process that is subsequently ignored, and civil servants moving ahead with their plan anyway, which in my view is to try to rationalise the resource. It is not child-centred. It is not based on need per se. It is an attempt to rationalise the resource, and while I understand that from a quantitative, deterministic, financial point of view, it is not child-centred, family-centred or based on the fundamental human rights of our children. There are a number of anomalies that have been brought to my attention in relation to the SNA issue. I was at the march and protest outside Leinster House last week and earlier this week, I travelled to different parts of the country to meet parents who are concerned about SNAs because it is a crisis. A crisis has been manufactured. None of these parents are my constituents. I went into constituencies represented by Members of this House and the Lower House and people's needs are not being met. For example, in relation to special classes that are supported by SNAs, in 2026-27, there will be one new special class for children with general learning disorders - that might be mild or moderate; I am not sure. By the same token, there will be 333 new classes for children with ASD. That is the projection. I do not know if that will happen on the ground. There seems to be an imbalance between the needs of different categories, if you will, of children with special needs, whether they be intellectual or, as in the case of my son, physical. I am very concerned that the Department is either wittingly or unwittingly - I would like to give it the benefit of the doubt - trying to create a hierarchy of need amongst children. The Minister said that we want to meet the needs of those who have the highest need. I am sorry, but the needs of all children who have a need must be met. It is their constitutional right. I do not like the idea of need being triaged or that a hierarchy of categories of need is being created. A feature of our community of disabled citizens and carers has been that fragmentation of our community, revolving around the competition for resources because we do not have a rights-based provision of resources in Ireland. We have a charitable, ableist model, one that says people will take what they are given. Parents and different parts of our community are forced to compete for inadequate resources that can actually be provided, given the balance of our Exchequer. It behoves the Minister, Deputy Naughton, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Deputy Foley, and Minister of State, Deputy Higgins, to put pressure on the Department of public expenditure and the Department of Finance to do the right thing for our disabled citizens because we are outliers in European terms. The SNA issue is just a symptom of a broader problem. It is an ideological position that sees disabled citizens in this country as having less human value than other citizens. That has been our lived experience, and my experience as a public representative interacting with parents all over the country. I receive hundreds of emails every week from families in crisis and suffering from trauma, moral distress and moral injury. People think that the difference is a challenge, but it is not. The difference is all the people who have chosen to be in the disability space. I spoke to some parents in Loughrea. There are 20 children between CDNT 8 and CDNT 6, which I believe is in the Minister's constituency, who have no access to supports and therapies for apraxia. If these children do not get these supports, they will become non-verbal. Imagine, 20 little citizens who will never be able to speak. The power of the human voice - it is our most important instrument, whether it is for singing or whether it is to mobilise social power or personal power, to participate or to self-actualise. To deny children access to a pilot programme that is properly funded and resourced so that they can become verbal is grotesque. We should do our utmost for these children. Again, this issue is just a symptom of a broader ableist perspective that does not see children with difference as having inalienable, fundamental human rights. --- 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