I do not know why anybody is surprised, if they are, at the ferocity of the backlash against this review. You are not paying attention if you were. We had the Green Paper withdrawn after a movement of disabled people. The referendum on care was defeated by disabled people. On school places, we have a had a mini-social movement in this country for the past three to four years, led primarily by women. Anyone who is surprised is ableist and not paying attention. There is an anti-ableist movement out there. Look how this whole building we are in is completely anti-disabled people. The Government saw an appalling vista. It saw the protests that immediately took place in St. John's school in Dublin and I commend those parents. Parents and workers working together is the solution here. I think the Government knew this was finished at that point. The circular that has been mentioned in regard to SNAs only delivering primary care needs is not even implemented in schools because we all know that SNAs are used for neurodivergent and autistic students or people with anxiety, mental health issues or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD. I went back to teaching after losing my seat the last time and I could see the importance of having SNAs in the classroom with me. I want to raise something controversial as well. I do not think SNAs should be moved around willy-nilly and redeployed. We should keep experience in schools. In regard to the idea that they will be filing their nails in the staff room if the pupil moves on, there is a massive shortage of SNAs as it is. There are 110 students in primary school in Dublin 15 who were classed as misplaced by the principals in the area. They could survive better if they all had SNAs. These SNAs, who are very often women but there are male SNAs as well, are, as usual, treated to insecure jobs, poor pay and moved around. That complete disregard for the work women do in our society has to change. On the 200 schools that got the notice, that was only a fraction because the review was not even finished. Some were going to lose half their SNAs. We have heard the guff about rebalancing support, and the big one the Government was saying on the television was that is "increasing SNAs overall". The population is increasing - of course the Government is increasing SNAs but the awareness of neurodiversity and disabled people's rights has increased massively in society, with more people getting a diagnosis and so on. We should also mark that the Government was willing to break with any sort of integration of students who are coping in mainstream with an SNA, and that it was diverting people towards special schools. That is a dangerous precedent. There is a need for special schools, of course, and I have campaigned for that but I refer to cases where it is not warranted. I also have to flag that secondary education is woefully deficient in catering for people with additional needs. There has been a campaign in primary but we are now getting parents demanding it, quite rightly, because their children fall off a cliff when they go into secondary that they are suddenly okay and can cope with everything. I also want to flag that we need occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and more teachers. People are talking about SNAs but there is a huge need for special education and learning support teachers. I want to raise a warning for the Minister of State that parents will not let the assessment of need go. The Government should keep its hands off them because I know the attempt is to dilute what they deliver and it will not be put up with.

Sentiment score: 0.00