Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and appreciate the opportunity to share some thoughts with her. My time is short so I will speak to two main matters. The first is the way SNAs are treated and the second is access to very basic provisions for children with additional needs in the community, including school places.

A crisis often reveals what society is really like, the priorities of that society and what it genuinely respects. The SNA role has been in our education system for approximately 20 years and there are endless stories of disrespect being shown to SNAs within the school system and individual schools, sometimes by principals and often by the manner to which they are referred. For example, most are referred to by their first name rather than surname in secondary schools. They are asked to do menial tasks such as collecting lunches and they do not get to use the same staff facilities. This does not happen in every school, clearly, but such cases in a number of schools have been brought to our attention.

It is difficult to stamp out this practice and get people to show more respect to our SNAs in daily school life when the Department demonstrated a stunning lack of respect for the role they play in our schools during the pandemic. This was not the fault of the current Minister of State, who was not in situat the time. The manner in which the potential redeployment was handled just goes to show once again that when it comes to teachers and buildings, the Department knows everything. If it is not a teacher or a building, the Department of Education and Skills knows nothing or pretends to know nothing. It will act as if anything that is not a teacher or building is an irritant and that people should almost be thankful they have a job in the first place.

I want to impress on the Minister how we are coming from a very low base when it comes to showing respect for our SNAs. They are included in every parliamentary or ministerial speech about the education system and we all love our SNAs. If this is the case, they must be paid properly and they must have proper terms and conditions of employment. Respect must be shown to them in the school system and this should also be shown by the Department. If the redeployment debacle is anything to go by, we have a long road to travel for SNAs to believe the Department and Minister has their back. I was embarrassed by the manner in which they were treated when we were all told we were in this together.

On the issue of school places for children with additional needs, particularly autism, I was quite frankly horrified by the treatment of parents who are completely exhausted. The Department is almost depending on the exhaustion of parents dealing with a challenging diagnosis to prevent them exposing the scandal of what they are expected to go through. It is one thing to receive a challenging diagnosis and do one's best as a parent. It is quite another, when trying to find a school place, to be handed a sheet of paper with a list of schools on it by the special needs organiser and wished the best of luck. It is up to the parents to access a school place. Schools have given any number of excuses for not being able to facilitate children with additional needs, many of whom have autism.

I know the Department and the Minister have intervened in certain circumstances. The Education (Admissions to Schools) Act 2018 allows the Minister to do so. However, it is an absolute scandal that just when parents need as much support from the State as they can get, they are handed a sheet of paper. In my constituency of Dublin Bay North, they have been directed to schools with addresses in Drogheda or told to pursue home schooling. That is all very well, but which of us is competent to know how to choose a tutor to come into our homes so that a child with special educational needs will be taught well and given expert tuition?

I wish the Minister of State well on these two issues and I am determined to work with her. I said the same to the Ministers, Deputies Foley and Harris. However, I want to firmly mark the Minister of State's cards on these two issues. She must address the treatment of special needs assistants. Moreover, the Department is depending on the fact that the issue of school places falls between two Departments and on the exhaustion of parents preventing them from campaigning. That is a scandal and I hope the Minister of State will be able to address it.

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