People power has forced the Government into a retreat on SNAs. That is extremely welcome. However, the underlying problem of the basis allocation of SNAs and the insufficient number of SNAs remains. This special school in Tallaght illustrates the problem precisely. It received a letter on 11 February saying its allocation would be reduced from the 2025-26 academic year. It was withdrawn on the same day, but the rationale presented is quite telling. It is based on primary care needs. That is the basis. In other words, it is primarily medical as opposed to other needs. I quote, “based on the evidence presented at review, many references to multiple adult-to-learner ratios were noted. This is not in line with a rights-based, regulation-first approach,” the idea being that there were too many SNAs and staff members to assist these children, when these are children with profound difficulties who may often need multiple adults. I add to that that the environment is not a purpose-built space but a shared campus. There are 600 kids and students on this campus and many cars coming and going. I saw videos of buses arriving, kids trying to get off and cars pulling in and out. It is a dangerous situation where multiple staff members are needed to keep children safe. That needs to be taken into account.

Sentiment score: 0.03

I thank the Minister of State and I would very much welcome the idea of a meeting. I also invite him to come and visit the school and meet with the principal, teachers, SNAs and so on. On the bottom-line point, what happened in the 40 minutes between the letter removing the SNAs and the letter saying that no SNAs would be removed was that the principal contacted the NCSE to say that all the parents' questionnaires that the NCSE had asked the school to fill out, that the parents had gone to fill out, as explained, and that the NCSE had supposedly taken into account in making its decision could not have been taken into account because the school still had them and they were all still sitting there. We saw them when we visited the school. The principal still has them at this stage. That was what happened in the intervening 40 minutes, which raises a question about whether this applied elsewhere as well.

Sentiment score: 0.14