Special Needs Assistants: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel SNAs are not optional extras or nice to have. It sometimes feels like this Government is treating them as an afterthought. In the context of my contribution, I am going to rely heavily on the words of those who have seen at first hand the realities of providing care for children with special needs. I specifically thank my colleagues councillors Lesley Byrne, Jesslyn Henry and Samantha O'Flanagan for their activism in this area. When the Government thinks of cutting SNAs from specific schools without recognising the full scope of the supports they provide, it is not simply adjusting numbers on a spreadsheet. It is removing children's access to safety, dignity and their chance to fully participate in school life. Special education is not a niche consideration for a handful of children and their families. It is a whole-school issue and a community-wide issue. Education for children with additional needs is not a bonus or good luck, and it should not depend on one's eircode. We should be cherishing all the children of the nation equally. The reality is, however, that at the moment we do not. If this Government is serious about inclusion, it needs to get serious about resourcing it properly. The Government is suffering from inclusion delusion if it thinks that SNA reductions in specific schools is going to do anything other than block children from an education they have every entitlement to. While I recognise that there is a pause, it was utterly ridiculous that we had weeks of concern and fear among parents, teachers, SNAs and school communities. This should never have happened in the first place. Parents are desperate. They are paying in order that their children will have access to, frankly, the most basic educational supports. They also fear that their children will fall further behind. They want their children to have access to education, but they also want them to feel safe and happy going to school every day. We have heard from journalist Emma Ward that the care she got during her school days made the difference between a child who was isolated and left behind to a child who was shown care and patience and was supported to thrive. The Government announced threats to hollow out a system that is already so poorly resourced. That was a slap in the face to parents and educators who are already at their wits' end. We need an educational model that is child centred. Our schools should be designed around the needs of children and not the other way round. The NCSE Relate document was published last year. It is the gold standard in the area of special education, and SNAs love it. Serious resources will be required in respect of it, but the Government is clearly not willing to provide that, which is a disgrace. The 2014 SNA circular reinforces ableist language and a hierarchy of needs that ignores the complexity of each child's unique experiences. One child may need help to go to the toilet while another may struggle with emotional regulation. Both needs are primary needs when it comes to the child involved feeling safe and being able to participate fully in school life. Secondary needs are also crucial. This is why the Social Democrats are seeking a front-loading of the assignment of SNAs to schools. We would ensure that schoolchildren with additional needs have the same access to school places as any other children and we would recognise the unique needs of every child and prioritise that child in reaching his or her full potential. When I visited Newtown Dunleckney Mixed National School in County Carlow a few weeks ago during the height of the concern around the reduction in SNA numbers - the school had been sent a letter in respect of that matter - the principal shared with me the desperation that educational professionals are feeling every day. They have to go against their values time and again by saying to parents "No. I'm so sorry. We don't have the resources. We can't support you fully in the way that your child deserves." We cannot have the scandal that we had over the past few weeks happen again next year or the year after. We need to fix the system, and we need to fix it now. --- 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