The Government has announced an additional €19 million in funding for SNA roles. They say this means that schools that had been allocated additional SNAs will get them for the 2026/2027 school year, and no schools will lose any SNAs.
Fórsa trade union, which represents many SNAs, has described the additional funding as a sticking plaster and that the can has been kicked down the road for 12 months.
Dozens of protests are planned around the country for this week in response to the Government’s earlier threat to cut SNAs in many schools, with many of the protests going ahead.
People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett said:
“The Government’s announcement of additional funding for SNA posts for the next school term is an important victory for parents, children, for SNAs and for school communities.
“The Government faced nationwide protests this week and more protests were being announced. The Government looked at people power mobilising and it backed down rapidly.
“That is an important win and victory for people power but we could be here again in a year’s time unless the government really heeds what school communities have said and radically change their attitude to providing the necessary supports for children with special needs and for schools more generally.
“The school community at my own former primary school, Our Lady of Good Counsel NS in Johnstown, which has been at the centre of national media coverage of this issue because it was hit so badly with the proposed SNA cuts, are delighted that the protests have worked, but are also very clear that the government must urgently address the issues that led to this crisis in the first place.
“It's clear that there has been an attempted tightening of the criteria for SNA allocations. This amounts to abandonment of the inclusive model of special needs education and cannot be allowed to stand."
The 2014 SNA scheme Circular from the Department is at the root of this. It fails to acknowledge those that have special needs that aren’t medical needs. Only a tiny fraction of applications for special supports are allocated SNAs and that circular must be rewritten as a matter of urgency to recognise and support non-medical needs.
The broader crisis in special education also needs to be addressed. Children are presenting at school with more complex needs because of failures in assessment, in therapies/CDNTs and in the allocation of appropriate school places. We need a total overhaul of special education and for this overhaul to be guided by those who know the issues best - Special Education Teachers, SNAs, parents and clinical specialists.
The Government must recognise immediately that we need as an absolute minimum an SNA for every class, and beyond that we need to reduce pupil-to-teacher ratios and massively improve and increase the special needs supports that are available for children.
Councillor Conor Reddy, one of the organising group behind the planned protests said:
“A grassroots group of SNAs and parents have core demands for primary care definitions to be amended to include regulation and communication; for full details of any SNA redeployment plans to be published; and for engagement by Government and the NCSE with SNAs, their unions and advocacy groups on redeployment plans and the wider crisis in special education.
“Government and NCSE engagement has to be meaningful and it needs to start by the Government setting out in detail what the additional funding will provide. School communities need clarity and certainty.”
“Parents and SNAs are clear, an extended pause is not a solution. Protests will go ahead this week, including outside the Dáil on Kildare Street at 5pm today, Wednesday 25th February. Families and school staff across the country will gather to demand expansion of posts, recognition for the vital work and professionalism of SNAs, and for the Government to demonstrate its commitment to children with additional needs”.
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