An extra €19 million will be spent on special needs assistants (SNAs) this year to ensure there are no cuts to existing service provision in schools, the Government has announced.
Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton and Minister of State for Special Education Michael Moynihan confirmed there will be no reductions of SNAs for the 2026/2027 school year after a meeting with the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers at Government Buildings.
The Government last week decided to pause a controversial review of SNA allocations following widespread criticism from teachers, parents and unions.
Government backbenchers, under pressure from parents and schools, were critical of the proposed reallocation of posts in some schools.
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The U-turn came after the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) contacted almost 200 schools indicating their allocations were being reduced.
The Department of Education said Coalition leaders had agreed all schools that had been reviewed by the council and allocated additional resources will receive them in the upcoming school year.
The funding for the new posts will not come from existing budgetary allocations, but will instead be new money allocated by the Department of Public Expenditure.
However, it was agreed that a redeployment scheme and plan for SNAs will be advanced before any further decisions are taken. Once these are agreed and published, the NCSE can begin reviews of supports to schools for the 2027/2028 academic year, the department said.
In the Dáil on Tuesday evening, Naughton said: “I understand the anger and the upset that arose this week, and I fully accept that the process of the outcomes were not properly communicated and I will work to ensure that this does not happen again.”
The Opposition, however, criticised the Minister’s failure to apologise to parents and school communities.
Meanwhile, the Government never signed off “on the scale and impact” of the SNA allocation review, Taoiseach Michéal Martin said earlier in the Dáil as the controversy dominated leaders’ questions.
He said when the Government saw the impact they considered it and “have decided not to go ahead with what was being proposed”.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said it was “extraordinary to hear you now seeking to deflect blame, to deflect responsibility”.
Earlier Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said that last week the Government paused the cuts, and had now “announced what amounts to an extension of that pause, acting only to buy yourself time and to alleviate pressure on government”.
She said the move was a “tactical retreat and not a change of heart”.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns asked if “instead of a quick fix is there going to be structural reform?” She said the definition of an SNA’s role is too narrow and this should be acknowledged in the review.
Carol McSherry, an SNA in Co Meath, said the issues raised by the row had not gone away and that the new contracts the Government wanted signed needed work.
“I think there is a belief in the Government that this will die down now there’s an announcement made and there’s money being given,” she told Early Edition podcast.
“But I think what will happen now is SNAs are going to come out and they will join together to fight this. This will not be let die. This new contract has to be firmed up and we have to be left alone to do our job.”
McShea, who marked 24 years working in a 450-pupil school last week, said the Government had failed to recognise the strength of feeling among SNAs.
“It’s an unusual job in that you’re quite emotionally attached to where you work,” she said.
“You’re helping children with additional needs. You want the best for them and then suddenly to be told that you’re being moved - it was a visceral reaction.”
She said the strains on the sector were not acknowledged. “We have a very tight schedule - not a spare minute in the day. There is always a feeling that we could do more,” she said.
Fórsa trade union’s head of education policy, Andy Pike, welcomed the additional €19 million but said the review “should never have happened”.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Pike said there was a need to know why the NCSE “did what they did”.
Any change in the criteria that determines the need for SNAs in schools needed to be negotiated and agreed, he said.
