I welcome that the Minister went into reverse gear at the last minute last night in the wake of threats of large protests. Members of this House and councillors, certainly Independent Ireland councillors, have received emails on this issue from various parents all over the country, including those in my own constituency, from Ballincollig to Whitechurch and from north Cork to east Cork to west Cork. People from Kerry have contacted me. A total of 200 schools are affected. One thinks of the number of parents, principals and SNAs who were affected. Last night's announcement by the Minister's office led to a sigh of relief from a number of people. These parents really do have enough on their plate. Someone who is looking after a child with special needs or additional needs has enough to worry about without somebody from the Department drawing a line, making that child a statistic or figure and deciding whether he or she is ill enough or weak enough or whether his or her problem is big enough or acceptable. Deputies Boyd Barrett and Michael Collins said it; trust is now gone. The little line of trust that was there, between parents and the Department of Education, is now gone, as is the trust between the principals and the Department. Trust between SNAs and the Department has certainly gone, given the way SNAs have been treated. Rebuilding that trust takes more than a half-winged apology in the House this evening. As one Deputy said, the Minister did not even have the courtesy to say "sorry", put up her hands and say she got it wrong. It would have been better if she had done that. The Minister confirmed that there are 23,000 SNAs working in schools. This is a lot of people who are working for a nine-month period and being paid over 12 months. They are low-paid workers who are sometimes treated well in schools and sometimes treated not as well as they should be. These people are at the front line. They make up a marginal workforce but they are the backbone of inclusion in this State. We find ourselves underpinning the State on the work of these people. One thing the Minister did not mention was the 20,000 children who remain on waiting lists for an assessment of need. This is not an abstract figure. It involves children waiting for recognition and support and waiting for the State to respond. We cannot describe ourselves as a system that is child-centred with thousands of children on waiting lists at the front door of this Department. Over the past two weeks, I have heard from people all over my constituency and beyond. The one message was that this cannot go on. This has been going on since Circular 0030/2014. Classrooms have changed and needs have become more complex. Diagnoses of autism have increased and population growth has accelerated well beyond the projected figures we had for 2026. We have now reached a certain demographic milestone that we did not expect to reach until the next decade. Instead, these numbers have arrived early in our schools and our education planning has not adjusted to keep pace with that. If we had shown the workforce any respect, Circular 0030/2014 would have already been modernised, we would not have to have this debate at this late hour and we would not have to have all these people in the Public Gallery. It is now 2026. The Minister is not unintelligent, so surely she should know Circular 0030/2014 is not fit for purpose. In fact, it is more of a handler's guide book than something that meets the needs that are there. Anyone who has a scintilla of knowledge, knows an SNA or has witnessed what an SNA does knows that the SNA takes the child with a little bit of dyslexia who is frightened of a book and encourages him or her to read and then takes the next step and encourages him or her to read aloud. The work of SNAs is unbelievable, from the soft touch to the word of encouragement. SNAs sit with children with eating disorders and encourage them to eat their lunch but, under Circular 0030/2014, they cannot open the lunch box. That does not make sense. It is not fit for purpose any more.

Sentiment score: 0.16