Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Under the programme for Government, I want to raise supports for special needs education. The Minister for Education and Skills came to Clonmel two weeks ago and announced about 600 new special needs assistants, SNAs. On the same day, the teaching and SNA staff in St. Mary's CBS in Irishtown, Clonmel, were told that they were being cut drastically. That school caters for boys from first to sixth class and has two autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units. Its staff champion the cause of ASD units. Two SNAs are being cut, one with 12 years' experience and one with six years' experience. The school is expected to carry on with children in mainstream classes and in the units without those SNAs. The whole system is totally unfair. The SNAs have to wait every year to see if they will get their notice. They have no job security. The families have no security whose children are attending there and who are grateful for the work the SNAs do. I have raised the matter already and hope the Minister will look into it. It is a sweeping cut. It is the only school in Clonmel with two ASD units. Big announcements are no good; they want real assurance that they will be maintained.

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