Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry but I have to dash off to vote. I thank the witnesses for putting on the record all of the work they do. Most of us here have experience in education. I have been chair of a school board of management myself and we had an SNA on the board. However, it should not be on a school-by-school basis. What can we do to have a more standardised approach? There is a standard approach for how we treat teachers. It does not make any sense for the work plans for SNAs to be decided on a school-by-school or teacher-by-teacher basis. It is not just about the accreditation but also about standardised contracts and terms and conditions. The pandemic has shown us that SNAs are invaluable. We have seen that other things can change and that many people can work from home, including teachers but the one cohort for whom we needed the schools to be open was children with special needs. We all know it now and the public is on board. We must now make sure that the politicians are on board. I am going to have to dash off but will listen in to the responses.