School Staff
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-10
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

Some of what I said is to give context to the way that this is being compounded. The key part to focus on is the English as an additional language aspect. The school is disappointed to be down by two mainstream teachers. However, they understand there are criteria regarding numbers. The 455 is by way of illustration that they have hit the bar on another date. Had the key date been another date, they might have been successful in keeping another teacher. However, the key part is the English as an additional language. The permanent position is still there, but they are effectively down by two positions in that area alone. This year they submitted 39 category A. According to the table I have here in front of me from last year and previous years before that, for the bracket 31 to 40 hours, that would have been 35 hours alone, even before we get into the 49 category B.
This is a school that is supporting a community that has a high degree of linguistic diversity, that includes a lot of children from direct provision from the Kinsale Road centre and is supporting a community which has mixed needs but certainly pockets of disadvantage. The goalposts have shifted here. That is the bit I would like the Minister of State to take back to the Department. Schools were not informed that there would be a different approach to the calculation in terms of EAL. The policy compounds that with the loss of the two permanent general allocation teachers and the loss of the special education teacher. Separately, it is now looking like there will be a loss of special needs assistant, SNA, hours. All of these things are compounding this, but the key injustice here is the fact that the goalposts have shifted and schools were not informed of this in advance. From having effectively three EAL positions it now looks as if the school will have one and ten hours. That is a huge loss, when the same number of children who have those needs are involved. Those children will now be in bigger classes, with access to fewer special education hours. That is a huge problem. I want the Minister of State to take that back to the Department. The goalposts shifted and the school is down because of it significantly.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10