Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----and absolute disregard for the North that we have seen time and again from this British Government. I would like a debate when we get more detail on this but it is important we express our dismay at what we are learning this morning.

On a more positive note, I very much welcome the announcement last week by Government on the regularisation of undocumented people. This has been a long-standing aim of the Justice for the Undocumented campaign, the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, MRCI, trade unions and other civil society groups. The acknowledgment by the Government that this process must be entered into in the first six months of next year is a historic and important moment. There are two things to say. Firstly, when we look at where many undocumented people work, especially the caring sector, we see they perform such an important role within Irish society but they have not had that recognition or status. Secondly, it is only about 11 months ago we were debating the citizenship Bill the Labour Party brought forward as part of its Born Here, Belong Here campaign. There are about 3,000 children who were born here to people who do not have status and they are caught up in a situation of statelessness where they are not entitled to access a passport, so I very much welcome the Government's move.

I attended a briefing yesterday organised by the Fórsa trade union on issues relating to special needs assistant, SNA, workers. Three SNAs, Eilise McGarrell, Noreen O'Mahony and Carol McSherry, spoke at it. They spoke so eloquently about the importance of their role and the tasks they perform in the classroom. We have 18,000 SNAs working across this country in almost every single primary school, yet the Department of Education's attitude is to repeatedly treat them almost as if they were adjunct and not core to the classroom and school system. It is astounding the Department has not, at this point in time, seen fit to engage with the trade union representing SNAs to try to set down and recognise qualifications. I understand a system of qualifications was last set down in 1979. The majority of SNAs have qualifications of at least level 5 if not level 6 on the Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, framework. It is about time the Department engaged with the trade union to set out a system of recognition and respect for SNAs.