Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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201. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to urgently address the disparity in salary for special needs assistants (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53378/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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SNAs are valued members of our school communities who carry out vital work in our schools supporting students with diverse needs. The Government is committed to the delivery of quality public services and continues to approach public service pay in a balanced way that is reasonable and fair to both public servants and to the taxpayer. This has been achieved through a series of national collective agreements, agreed between trade unions and the Government, applying across the public sector.

Circular 0056/2025 confirms that SNAs are covered under the Public Service Agreement 2024–2026 (PSA) which applies to all public servants. The PSA builds on the previous agreement “Building Momentum” which ended in 2023 to provide for a number of pay increases that have been approved by Government. The pay element of the PSA includes further increases of 9.25% up to June 2026.

Furthermore, since September 1st, 2001, under Circular 0063/2008, a Pension Scheme and an associated Spouses’ and Children’s Pension Scheme have been in place for Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) employed in secondary, community and comprehensive schools. This is a contributory, defined benefit scheme that provides standard public service pension benefits.

As is standard practice, discussions with public service unions continue on all matters relating to pay agreements. Any review of terms and conditions including pay and pensions for SNAs will follow these established processes and be considered in detail by the Department of Education, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery, and Reform, and the relevant unions.