At a meeting of the budget scrutiny committee today, we were informed by the Department of public expenditure that there will be an extra €640 million for the education sector. Officials explained that was largely to do with special needs. To me, what that says is that were it not for the protests of school communities, including parents, teachers, principals and SNAs, the Government would, at a minimum, have given €640 million too little to special needs. It would have short-changed children in terms of their right to an education and the educational supports they need. Of course, that is on top of the failure of the Government to deliver on assessments needed by children who are left on waiting lists. When they get assessments, they never ever get the services they need. The legal and moral rights of our children are not being honoured. Only because of a crisis and the protests of school communities has the Government been forced to find some additional money. It will almost certainly not be enough to address the issue. Extra money has been allocated because school communities revolted against the intent of the Government to implement swingeing SNA cuts in many schools. We are not getting clear guarantees that everybody will get the special class places they should have in September. We are not getting a clear commitment that the alternative circular has been put together. It appears the circular that led to the crisis will be adopted by the Government. There will be serious engagement with the SNA campaign. Parents, who are stressed and have to deal with all these hardships, had to go to all the effort of putting together an alternative circular on special needs because the Government had failed so catastrophically. Give the parents and children the commitments they need that they will have their places and resources and that the Government will engage with the circular and vindicate the rights of children to education.

Sentiment score: -0.05