Ms Breda Corr:

Special needs assistants, SNAs, have to do 12 days or 72 hours of training. They come back either at the beginning or the end of the school term. There are particular things that may need be done in the school during the school year as well. The problem arises if someone is not willing to come in before or after, or the particular kind of training required might not be available during the summer. It depends on what the training is. It could be manual handling or behaviour-type training such as management of actual or potential aggression, MAPA, training, involving the identification of triggers. People might not be available during the summer. They may not be employed by the school for the summer.