We absolutely have to have the SNA cull, or sorry review, put onto the Dáil agenda this week. Every single TD has been plagued by a deluge of representations on this. Fair play to parents, pupils and staff in the school in Dublin who yesterday called out the Government and got it to pause it. However, it has not dropped it; it has just paused it. It has to be discussed in the Dáil. What we have from the Taoiseach is that suddenly students progress. God forbid a special needs assistant, SNA, should be left in a school-----

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-----because, of course, there would not ever be another student who would have additional needs.

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We all know that appeals very rarely go in favour of the parents or the student. Help with school refusal, anxiety and ADHD in mainstream schools is very important. It is very important that SNAs are maintained in schools. Shifting the focus away or on to the primary care needs of children, which is what the Minister is doing, will gut SNAs from so many schools. We need this put onto the agenda. We need to stop pitting schools, mainstream and special schools, against each other. It will not work.

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