Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, Melissa Byrne, has been contacted by parents in Newbridge who are devastated that the Patrician Secondary School will have a reduction in SNAs between 2026 to 2027 from 6.75 posts to four posts. I know this too will concern the Deputy Leader and I am sure she will look for the Government to intervene. We have written to the Minister for education because this is an issue in schools across the country. In the Patrician Secondary School, there will be one SNA for 232 children and that is unacceptable. It is a let-down for families and their children.

I also wish to address some of remarks made by Senator McDowell in the Seanad yesterday. He has every right to stand up for Larry Murrin but once we move into the arena of Portaloos, things get a bit ridiculous. Taking exception to a Portaloo on the pavement is bizarre. Does the Senator expect farmers to pee on the side of the street? They are not animals. They also use the loo. Nobody is questioning the role of Mr. Murrin. The role he has played in Bord Bia has contributed to Bord Bia's success and he is a very good astute businessman. However, he is the chair of an organisation that enforces onerous regulations on farmers. If you truly believed these regulations were needed to protect consumers, you would surely follow or insist on those regulations yourself. The one or two organisations of which the Senator spoke represent more than 80,000 farmers; the same farmers who pay €6 million a year to Bord Bia. They absolutely have a right to protest and to stand up for themselves. Some farmers cannot simply opt out of Bord Bia. If a dairy farmer does not get quality assurance then he cannot sell his produce. Why someone would be more outraged over a Portaloo on the streets than the hypocrisy of a chair enforcing regulations on farmers that he does not himself follow is a question I will ponder.