Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

I raise again the critical shortage of special needs assistants and the devastating consequences of that in our schools. I will offer two examples from my constituency. Max Ryan is a nine-year-old student at St. Vincent's National School, Glasnevin. He has autism, global development delay, sensory issues, speech and language delay and separation anxiety. When Max entered junior infants, there was one other child in his class with additional needs and St. Vincent's had 2.5 SNA positions. Max is now going into fourth class, where there will be seven children with additional needs, and there are still only 2.5 SNA positions for the entire school. St. Catherine's Infant School in Cabra, like St. Vincent's, has engaged in the review by SENO for additional SNA provision but, like St. Vincent's, it has to date received nothing. The staff at St. Catherine's tell concerning stories of continual stress. They describe a situation that is hazardous for staff and traumatising for students. They are not exceptional. There are many schools in the same situation. They are doing incredible work. Max is just one of hundreds of young children being let down every single day. When will SNA provision truly match the need in our schools?

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