Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have one or two points to make. Deputy McLoughlin referred to the fact that the ancillary grant is capped at €500. There are large schools with 700 or more students. I cannot understand how the Department would think that the grant should be capped at €500 per child because, obviously, there are extra needs, many more classrooms, many more spaces that need to be looked after and far more administrative work. It is really difficult for those schools that have taken on the extra pupils but are not getting the extra staff. We know that where there might be only one secretary in a larger school, some of the senior management team have to take on some of these essential tasks, which takes away from leading teaching and teachers. That can be difficult.

SNAs play an important role in terms of inclusion in Ireland. Many students with intellectual disabilities have the opportunity to go to mainstream schools, which we recognise and commend. We have spoken about it here previously. We must acknowledge that were it not for the SNAs, that would not be possible. I have received a number of communications regarding SNAs and their conditions of employment. I know we cannot get into this too deeply at this meeting but it is having an impact on the overall educational experience within the school. When we had stakeholder engagement here regarding the issues around recruitment and retention of teachers, we found that because teachers could not get permanent positions, it was very difficult to get staff. Is it pretty much the same now with school secretaries, caretakers and SNAs? Is the fact that their conditions are difficult, many of them are not being paid during the summer and their employment is not permanent affecting attempts to recruit these essential people who keep our schools running?

We will go back to the stakeholders. We will start with Ms Carton and work back. If Deputy Naughton and Senator Byrne wish to come back in, they may do so.