Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

SNAs are given 21 days' leave if deemed to be at risk in the work environment. Teachers and SNAs should be treated the same and I do not want to see any disparity. Providing special needs assistance is a vocation, as far as I am concerned. Tomorrow at my constituency office, there will be queues of people looking for facilities for their children. When a child goes to school and is looked after on a full-time basis by an SNA, that SNA should be looked after. Am I to tell the young mother I spoke to that I spoke to the Tánaiste in the House and got no relief?

All SNAs want is to get the same respect as a teacher. They go back to school and do a bit of study. The young girl to whom I referred has been bitten, kicked and punched. Such people come into my constituency office and have no complaints whatsoever. They are there to help the children and everything else. All they are looking for is the same respect as teachers get. The Tánaiste, as a former teacher, must realise the amount of good work that SNAs do. I ask him to do whatever is in his power. I ask him to give me some kind of response so I can go back to these people who want to be SNAs. As I said, half the schools in the country cannot get enough SNAs. If they feel as if they are not being looked after, how are we going to get the right people to become SNAs?

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