I welcome the opportunity to contribute to these statements. I want to correct the record of the Dáil. The Minister said that, by comparison, Sinn Féin's general election manifesto committed to providing an average of 1,000 SNAs per year. I think she was talking about special education teachers, not SNAs. When it comes to SNAs, the Minister has not provided 1,000 special education teachers-----

Sentiment score: 0.23

Sinn Féin is setting the yardstick in relation to that. When it comes to special needs assistants, there were 1,700 last year. Sinn Féin provided for 1,900. How many were there this year? There were 1,700 again this year. Sinn Féin provided for 1,850. Over the last couple of years, had Sinn Féin been in Government, we would have had hundreds more special needs assistants. I would like to correct the record of the Dáil in relation to that. Last night, the Dáil sent a unified and powerful message. We unanimously agreed on the need for urgent action to protect SNA provision and, more important, to protect the children who depend on it. We laid out a clear motion. The Minister and Minister of State agreed to it. In agreeing to that motion, the Government agreed to abandon the disastrous 2025-26 review and reverse the cuts that have caused cruel uncertainty for families and the SNAs who dedicate their lives to supporting some of our most vulnerable children. There is one part of the motion that I want to focus on today because it goes to the heart of the dysfunction that we have seen. It called on the Government to "guarantee that no future changes to SNA provision will be made without meaningful, constructive, and transparent engagement with schools, parents, and SNAs themselves, ensuring their voices and expertise are central to decision-making". For far too long, decisions about our children's care have been made behind closed doors. A point was made that the NCSE is being unaccountable gatekeepers. That is not a criticism of the NCSE; it is a criticism of the Minister and her predecessors. She has given the NCSE and the SENOs an impossible job. She has tied their hands. That is the issue that has to be resolved here. As was said so many times yesterday, we must trust schools. The point was made yesterday that the Minister trusts principals to allocate SNA resources within their schools but she does not trust them to tell her how many SNAs they need. That is the conundrum and contradiction in all of this. There needs to be a change of path. In all of her contributions, the Minister has not, for one second, shown humility and I have not heard a recognition of the hurt and pain this has caused. Nor have I heard that there will be a step change in the approach to all of this. There has been real concern about the Government's response to the 2014 circular. It is out of date and needs to be completely overhauled. We have just come from a meeting of the education committee that discussed this precise topic. What did we hear from the Taoiseach yesterday? He said we have to be very careful about expanding the role of SNAs and we have to think about it long and hard. I have thought about it long and hard, as have SNAs and everybody working with children with disabilities. They live with it every single day and they know the 2014 circular must be overhauled. We need to recognise the roles that SNAs play and resource them and allocate them on that basis.

Sentiment score: 0.10