Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí Ní Raghallaigh agus O’Rourke as an rún seo a chur chun cinn. Cuirim fáilte roimh na SNAs agus gabhaim buíochas leo as an obair atá ar siúl acu. The past two weeks have been a truly worrying time for many parents, SNAs and teachers across the State. The uncertainty of the SNA allocations for September has shown that the Government does not value the work that SNAs do to support students with additional needs. Individual TDs might, but, collectively, the Government does not. That is the transparency that people are seeing. It is the teachers who are already trying to do their jobs in the largest class sizes in Europe who will be asked to pick up the pieces should schools lose SNAs. I have spoken with parents, teachers and SNAs from Leixlip to Kilcock, and all the way down to Naas. We had almost 1,400 parents at an online meeting last night. We heard from anxious parents who say they feel the Government does not care about their children, and that their children are being stripped of their dignity due to the lack of respect. These are SNAs who themselves have children with special needs, and that is what brought them to that call. Most mams were almost in tears, and many parents succumbed to those tears. Let us leave aside the genuine worries of SNAs, teachers and parents for the moment and think about who this is really damaging. This is about vulnerable children, citizens of this State. That is who is being punished here at the end of the day, just because they have additional needs. It would be a fundamental assault on their human rights and their constitutional right to education if we were to take the SNAs they have in school away from them. These are the children who rely on the hard, diligent work of SNAs every single day when they come through the gates of mainstream schools. They are already being badly treated. This is unacceptable. A piece of advice for this awful Government: do not take on the parents of children with special needs. You will not win.

Sentiment score: -0.20