Minister of State for Education Michael Moynihan has confirmed schools approved for additional special-needs assistant (SNA) care will get the allocations they require.
He told the Dáil if a school has gone through an SNA assessment “and it was clearly demonstrated in that school that there was additional care needed, that has to be stood over”.
He added that if schools were losing their SNA it was always going to be from September 1st, 2026, “not now or not some time at Easter”.
The Minister, who has responsibility for special education, was answering questions about the pausing of the controversial review of SNA allocations.
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Amid much concern about the process, the Government wants to ensure “all of the school communities have confidence in it”, he said.
He told TDs: “I can assure you that when we have this done we will have it right.”
Earlier it emerged Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton and special-education officials are facing a committee grilling over a controversial review of SNA allocations.
Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe, who chairs the Oireachtas education committee, said he was looking to expand two meetings planned with Naughton and the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) in the next fortnight to include questioning on the matter.
The Government was forced to pause a review this week after a backlash when almost 200 schools were told their SNA allocation was being reduced for the school year beginning in September.
Crowe said he was asking Naughton to facilitate questioning on the issue at a planned meeting next week on budgetary matters.
“Given it is the elephant in the room, I’m proposing to some degree that members be allowed to go into that area ... and I’m asking her to facilitate that,” he said.
[ Have your say: What role does an SNA play in your life?Opens in new window ]
In the Dáil on Thursday, Tánaiste Simon Harris said the pause in the review of allocations among schools would take “a few weeks”.
“There’s a short window, because we do need to provide clarity and certainty to schools. So it can’t go on longer than a few weeks,” he told Labour Party education spokesman Eoghan Kenny on Thursday.
The Tánaiste said it was “about getting this right” and some of what he, Kenny, and everyone had heard “was not right in terms of what was happening on the ground in individual school communities”.
Harris said the plan on redeployment of SNAs was “almost there”.
A review of the allocation was paused earlier this week after criticism from teachers, parents and unions. The U-turn came after the NCSE contacted almost 200 schools indicating their numbers were being cut.
Two-thirds of the 584 schools reviewed before the pause are set to retain or increase the number of SNA posts but 194 were informed of planned reductions. Some schools reported they would lose four or five positions.
However, the Labour TD said the Government’s policy decisions and communications “have been cruel”.
It was no wonder there was such an outcry, he said, when the Department of Education has “made a decision to abruptly take SNAS out of mainstream environments”.
[ Government insists no ‘cliff edge’ for SNAsOpens in new window ]
Harris insisted “we will see more SNAs in our schools next September” and no SNA “will lose their job”, with almost 25,000 to be in place for the next school year.
Any review had to be “child centred” but there was “significant feedback” that was not the experience of schools on the ground.
He was aware of schools that sought reviews because they needed more SNAs. “So this review can’t be some sort of one-way street. It has to be about identifying the care needs of the children in the school and matching the resource to the care needs.”
“This should have happened, quite frankly, in advance of the review. It has to be done in conjunction with a redeployment plan for SNA, something that I believe is almost there.”
