Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government is now over a month behind in allocating special needs assistants, SNAs, to schools for the forthcoming school year. This comes hot on the heels of an overwhelming number of appeals by schools regarding their special needs allocation under the new resource model. These delays are causing serious distress in families and communities. Parents of children with special needs are this morning at their wits' end. They do not know whether their child will have access to an SNA in September or, if they do, how many hours of SNA support they will receive.

As we know, SNAs help children to feel safe and secure in meeting the challenges of school. They focus on the specific challenges of children with special needs and help them to cope with and overcome them. These children will struggle in mainstream school settings without the support of an SNA. The work of an SNA is very valuable. Knowing that they will have such support is a great source of confidence for children and parents during the back-to-school period. The delay has robbed children and their parents of that confidence. School has now finished for the summer so schools are not in a position to make plans or prepare children for potential changes in the new term. School principals are placed in the extremely difficult position of not being able to tell SNAs employed by their school whether they will have a job when the children come back in September.

I have been contacted by numerous SNAs expressing their fears for the future. One wrote to me and asked how what is happening could be fair on SNAs. She stated they deserve respect and to know where their future lies. She contends it is the same old story every year, involving uncertainty and unease. She stated she is a parent to two children and has a mortgage. She claims SNAs need answers and, more important, stability regarding their future. Does the Taoiseach believe it is acceptable to leave children, parents and SNAs in this position of uncertainty and fear?

Schools, parents and children are now in limbo over the lack of clarity as to the resources that will be available in September. This is not good enough. There really is no excuse. The kind of slapdash approach to the allocations contrasts sharply with how schools are treated if they miss deadlines for applications for resources. The Taoiseach and Minister for Education and Skills need to ensure this critical information on allocations is provided to schools as a matter of urgency. The Taoiseach also needs to review his procedures to ensure the information is provided every year in good time. What is the cause of the current delay? Will the Taoiseach now tell the children, parents and SNAs when the allocations are to be finally made?

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