Ms Carol McSherry:

A poll was done. Currently, two thirds of the SNAs who are in the workforce have a level 6 qualification. We always have to upskill. That is the thing. It is why we need CPD. A child might come in for whom you need to learn, Irish Sign Language, ISL. We have to always be prepared to upskill all the time. There is a huge willingness. At the moment, most of us are paying for a lot of the courses ourselves. I have done the UCD course, but you have to be an SNA to do that course. It is excellent and is now available at St. Angela's. As someone pointed out this week, what we are trained for in the UCD SNA course would not be covered in the circular.

It is far beyond what is in Circular 0030/2014. It is very ironic. I would say we are well qualified.