The announcement rushed out on Monday night was designed to do two things: quell the Dáil on Tuesday and silence SNAs and families on Wednesday. It has not succeeded. SNAs are not stupid. As Deputy Bacik said yesterday during Leaders' Questions, they know a pause is not a plan. The Taoiseach's performance yesterday during Leaders' Questions was incredible. It showed signs of a Government in absolute panic mode. It was a shambles. It was the leader of a country throwing civil servants in the Department of education and the NCSE under the school bus.

Sentiment score: -0.05

It was shameful for and unbecoming of someone who delights in telling us he is a former education Minister. It would serve him and the rest of the Government better, and would restore some trust in politics, if he, the Minister and the Minister of State just admitted that they all got this horribly wrong. Instead, they apologised for how things were communicated. It was absolutely shambolic. They did not apologise at all for the policy itself. That is telling. I am aware that there are SENOs across this country whose very first job over the past two weeks was to go into schools, based on the letters received, and tell them they were going to experience cuts to their SNA complement. They did this because the NCSE was forced to introduce arbitrary cuts with no policy rationale whatsoever other than to help with budgetary overruns in the Department of education. That is the nub of it. The trust is broken between SNAs and the Government, and a pause will not cut it. There needs to be a new plan and, ultimately, SNAs themselves, families and young people need to be involved in framing that new plan. The Minister is suppressing replies to parliamentary questions. She refused to release to me the names of schools in Louth that received NCSE letters prior to the first pause. These letters exist and they are a matter of public record. The shambles the Government has made for itself is demonstrated by the fact that it is simply refusing to do something it is obliged to do, namely send to me information already on the public record by way of replies to parliamentary questions. The Minister is obliged to answer and must confirm that she will.

Sentiment score: -0.08