The chaos this Government has inflicted on SNAs, parents and children countrywide has been absolutely appalling. I, like many, have listened to the Minister in this Chamber and on the national airwaves, but after a week of listening I am still not sure Ministers even know what their position was. Parents do. SNAs do. Schools do. They know that the Government rushed through a review with no real consultation, and seemingly no real understanding of the role of SNAs and definitely no real plan for schools. We know there was no real plan because we have heard this directly from the schools themselves. Thornleigh Educate Together National School, which is in Swords in my constituency, had a full-school SNA review in December 2024, and an increase of 2.66 SNAs was granted in January 2025. In September 2025, it enrolled a large number of pupils with needs in junior infants and in other classes, which is exactly what we wanted schools to do. The school identified 15 of the children as requiring significant SNA support. It effectively had to use two SEN teachers in an SNA role as a result. This was intended as a temporary measure while it engaged with the NCSE. That engagement happened and a focus review was carried out in November where only paperwork related to the newly emerged needs was examined. To the school's horror, it received an email at the start of February this year stating not only that it would not be provided with an additional SNA allocation to meet the newly emerged needs but also that its existing allocation would be cut by one post. Can anyone explain how that works to me, the parents of the children, the children themselves or the SNA whose job was cut? Thornleigh was not the only school in my constituency affected, of course. Donabate Portrane Educate Together National School was told it too was facing a cut to its number of SNAs. From start to finish, the handling of this was total madness. There are also the cases of other schools. I have raised in this Chamber and directly with the Minister of State the case of River Valley Community National School, which had different needs in relation to providing a safe learning environment for children with additional needs. That was put on the back burner because of this absolute shambles. We welcome the backtrack, but there has been an absolute crisis – one of the Minister's making.

Sentiment score: -0.05