Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and appreciate his making himself and his officials available for engagement on an ongoing basis. I am running tight on time but wish to flag something to which the Minister can respond in writing, rather than eating into Deputies Tully and Clarke's time. The pressure the parents of special needs children are under cannot be understated. The children's lives and routines have been turned upside down and they cannot understand it. They are frustrated and sad and often are falling further behind. Education is fundamentally about learning, stimulation and socialisation and lack of those is having a great impact on these children. How will the Minister resolve confusion regarding the redeployment of special needs assistants, SNAs? The issue has, unfortunately, been miscommunicated from the start. SNAs have had very little guidance and have had to work off their own initiative. There is now an issue in respect of vetting that is stopping people from being redeployed. They are frustrated by that and it needs to be resolved and clarified. There is also the matter of July provision, or something like it, being delivered remotely in a safe manner. I have also raised the lack of school spaces and unit spaces. That is an issue everywhere, including in my constituency.

Many parents with children who are finishing primary school and are going on to secondary school have contacted me, and the Minister addressed it in his opening remarks. They are worried because the children's primary education suddenly came to an end and their preparation for that transition did not happen. Now they do not know when that is going to start. It might not seem like the most urgent issue to some but to those parents and families, it is huge and is something that must be addressed.

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