John Brady, Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow, has said that the Minister for Education’s decision to pause reviews of Special Needs Assistant (SNA) allocations will offer little reassurance to families in Wicklow who remain deeply concerned about their children’s educational supports.
Responding to the announcement, the Sinn Féin deputy said:
“The Minister’s move to halt the National Council for Special Education (NCSE)-led reviews reflects both the level of anger within communities and the sheer absurdity of the proposed cuts in the first place.
It should never have taken this long for the Minister and the NCSE to recognise how damaging it would be to remove as many as six SNAs from a single school. The reality is that children who depend on this support would have seen it disappear from one term to the next.
Children with additional needs depend every day on the support of Special Needs Assistants simply to access education, to take part in school life alongside their peers, and to achieve their full potential. At the same time, families are already under enormous pressure trying to navigate a system that many find complex, slow and frustrating, with more than 2,500 children in Wicklow still waiting for an Assessment of Need and with limited access to appropriate school places and specialist classes both here in Wicklow and across the state. Against that reality, the government’s move to cut SNA supports for some children in mainstream classrooms, based on criteria that are still being developed, is nothing short of scandalous.
The uncertainty this has created in Wicklow is profound, affecting not just principals and teachers, but families across the county who are deeply worried about their children’s futures.
From my engagement with school principals across Wicklow, it is clear the proposed reductions were completely disproportionate to actual needs. Demand for supports is increasing every year, and schools are already trying to make up for years of underinvestment.
A core issue is that SNA allocations are still based solely on primary care needs. In practice, SNAs do far more, helping children to concentrate, participate, socialise, regulate emotions, and build confidence. That broader contribution must be recognised as a matter of urgency.
The government itself has acknowledged that the SNA role is evolving and is currently reviewing the job specification. Applying outdated criteria so rigidly while that review is ongoing is both inconsistent and unfair.
All proposed cuts must now be permanently scrapped, and no further reviews should proceed until the SNA Workforce Development Plan is completed. That is the only way to properly reassure anxious parents and SNAs, and to ensure that children with additional needs continue to receive the supports they rely on every day.” Ends