Mary Moran (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Some of the points raised are things I would wholeheartedly concur with and will be included in my report. It has given me confidence that I am going in the right direction. The information I am getting is feeding into the process. I have no wish to stray off the point, but with regard to Ms Griffin's comments, when we are looking at getting the information out, it is not a question of one size fits all. We can allocate teachers to a school and have a given pupil-teacher ratio, but when an SNA is allocated to a school, there are many different complex needs within that. That is where a personalised involvement is important. We have not mentioned them today but that is where the role of the special education needs organiser comes in. It is vital they are involved. I am not having a go at SENOs but sometimes they can be few and difficult to contact and communicate with parents. Indeed, many parents are unaware of the involvement of SENOs. That is important.

The deputation from the Department of Education and Skills made certain points. I totally agree. This goes back to the point made about getting the information out and about exactly what parents can expect with the role. I believe the SNA needs to be involved in all the IEPs.

I know Senator D'Arcy and Deputy Daly come from the primary end. Unlike some of my colleagues, I come from the secondary end of it. Even today we are having a different discussion from some years ago when we discussed the role of the SNA. I saw it myself at the beginning and, fortunately, we have moved away from the direction where the SNA's role included photocopying and making tea. Thank God we have moved away from all that and it has not even arisen at this meeting. That is a major point.

What is the Department's view of providing continuing professional development to SNAs? It needs to be included. We need to have a departmental view on a review of the entry requirements to be an SNA. I have met many SNAs and raised the point with them. Many were unaware of the level of qualifications and automatically presumed they were higher.

I have no wish to start putting a negative impact on it but one of the questions I asked in the report related to respect. One of the questions on the survey was whether SNAs believed they were respected in their job. While 52.9% of almost 3,000 replies answered "Yes", 8% said "No" and 39% said "Sometimes". This is something we should consider. There is excellent work going on, which I know from meeting those involved. The majority will say they are respected. I suppose it would be the same among my teaching colleagues present if we put a survey to them and asked them whether they believed they were responsible. Some of the comments I got back were interesting. Some said their duties included cleaning up after a child if she was sick or cleaning up after a child after lunch or whatever. Some said this was not their role. In my role as a teacher I have done that. I could have said it was not my job but when a person is in a given situation, everyone is flexible with their position. That is something that needs to come on. We need to let our SNAs know they are respected. They need to know they can come into the staffroom at the same time as everyone else and not be made have their breaks at a different time. We need to ensure they feel respected. I thank everyone for coming before the committee. It has been very good.

Peer support play different roles in primary and secondary schools. We need to ensure there is someone over those children. Often, the children who volunteer to be buddies or offer peer support can overindulge in it. For their safety, we need to be careful.