Peter Roche (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank the witnesses for attending. They are most welcome. We had an earlier session with Fórsa which gave us good insight regarding the SNAs feedback on how they are fitting in, so to speak, in schools and the kind of demands put on them in terms of additional work outside of their SNA role. Some of it was worrying, to say the least, but how and ever. I noted that witnesses stated in the presentation that there was a 40% increase in SNA supports since 2020, as a consequence of population increase and maybe the Department putting more resources in where they required. Credit is due to the witnesses if the latter is the case. One thing I really welcome is that from 2026 the release of the SNA allocations will be earlier so as to predict trends and the allocations for the annual staffing schedules will be better. Ms Corcoran referred to the existing SNA training course as assisting SNAs around the country to have greater understanding of their students and their strengths and needs. Will the witnesses expand on this and site-specific learning objectives or learning modules that have been evidently successful in that regard? What positive feedback has been received from the SNAs?