I welcome the statements by the Minister and the Minister of State confirming there will be no cuts to SNAs across schools this year. From speaking to SNAs and parents, however, they are worried that this is just a pause. What will happen next year? I listened to the Minister's speech. She spoke about SENOs knowing our education system. A lot of Deputies spoke today and yesterday about the 2014 circular that is totally outdated. When the policy was being developed, SENOs felt they were not listened to, but they are the professionals and the gang that live it every day in schools. I have certainly listened to that. We had an online meeting last Monday. There was well over 1,000 people at that. We listened to parents, teachers, SENOs and SNAs pouring their hearts out with grief and fear. One woman from Cork apologised before she even opened her mouth because she was so upset. These are not my words but this lady's words; she said she never felt so undervalued in her entire life. She never felt so broken for doing something that she loved and felt that there was no answer. I welcome the July provision. I sat on the autism committee, which made 109 recommendations. I would like that to improve and keep going forward. The Minister also mentioned dialogue, the new platforms, the new policy documents that are coming out and the work between the Department and the unions. I will flag something the unions have told me straight out. They said that what would happen is they will go into a dark room, the unions and the Department will say their piece, but it will be the Department's way or the highway. I wanted to flag that because if we want to do the right thing, we should engage with every single body to get the policies right. If we do, we will never be back here again.

Sentiment score: 0.02