Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

I thank the Minister for the standard reply. The last Government's decision to cap the number of SNAs in schools was disgraceful. Even heretofore it was difficult to get their children assessed, to get them into schools and to get the SNAs that are needed. Now they are being told that because of economic constraints their children may not and will not have that support in the future. The Minister might put a cap on the number of SNAs but he cannot put a cap on the number of children being born every year who will have special educational needs in the future. I heard the Minister's speech to the INTO conference, which did not mention resource teachers or SNAs once.

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