Pauline Tully
Cultural and Educational Panel · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I acknowledge that there have been huge improvements on what is available for women, compared with a few years ago when there was nothing, but still far too often conditions affecting women are seen as a specialty or mystery when there is a range of supports and advice that women could receive through primary and community care services.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire chuig an Seanad. I welcome the Bill. We will be fully supporting it. It makes sense. It will reduce barriers for women and make access to contraception easier, which is always going to be welcome. It will also ease pressure on primary care.”
“We need to look at a better public transport system, especially looking after our older people in isolated communities. Even to support our rural pub, we need to look at some sort of incentive for a taxi service that is affordable for people, so we can maintain our rural pubs and look after our older people.”
“Community and voluntary services on the ground, which are vital for providing supports and services to many sectors of the community, including older people and younger people, are not seeing sufficient funding to help them to keep running, to recruit and retain staff within the youth sector, for example, to maintain buildings if they hav…”
“The motion that we have put forward is very broad and covers many aspects that affect us in rural life. I too am astounded by the amendment tabled by the Government because it does not call for anything, which gives the impression that everything that is needed is there, yet many colleagues across the room here ask for more gardaí in thei…”
“Sláintecare is being rolled out too slowly, so we need to see proper resourcing of community healthcare. It avoids people ending up in acute healthcare settings, which are overcrowded. I see a dangerous trend where many people are being referred from areas such as Cavan and Monaghan to Dublin for acute care.”
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“I want to raise and highlight this matter with the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, Deputy Foley, because it is a form of discrimination. I ask that we invite the Minister to come to the House to discuss additional supports in after-school facilities for children with additional needs. We know the prevalence of autism in particular is increasing. We will have more and more children who require support after school. Both parents have to work these days because of cost-of-living pressures. I would appreciate it if we could have that debate. Some weeks ago, I requested that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, come to the Chamber to discuss the roads funding allocation for County Cavan. Has there been any follow-up on that? Has the Minister agreed to come to the House for a debate on the state of our roads?”
“When children go to preschool, access and inclusion model, AIM, support is provided. When children go to school there is SNA support or if they are in a special class, there is a special education teacher and a reduced ratio, but there is no support in the after-school facilities. I contacted a number of providers in this area, all of which said the same thing, namely, they want to include more children with additional needs but they are not in a position to do so. To refuse is discrimination but, at the same time, the providers have to ensure the safety of the students who are using the facility, the students with additional needs and the staff. There is also very little training for staff in these centres.”
“I was recently contacted by a parent who has twins. They are both autistic and will be starting school in September in the local primary school where they will be part of its autism class. The ratio in the class is one special education teacher to six children, with two special needs assistants, SNAs, in support. Both parents work and they requested that their children be included in the after-school facility nearby which takes children in from the school in question. The after-school facility is willing to take the children in but it is very concerned because it is not sure the facility has sufficient supports to look after these children properly. The ratio in after-school education is one to 12. There are no additional supports for children with additional needs.”
“It is a matter of even just having screening or a scan at birth for this condition as well. I will send on the details but I hope I will receive a prompt reply from the Minister's office on this.”
“However, the fact that she had to wait three months last year as well indicates that the system is not working properly in the interest of the child or of any children. She therefore wants this highlighted. Obviously, she wants the brace for her own child as quickly as possible, but she made the point to me as well that there is no screening at birth for cerebral palsy. Her child has turned four. While she and her husband realised there were issues or there was something wrong, she did not get a diagnosis until her daughter was two. If the child had been screened at birth, this could have been picked up faster and supports put in place faster because, as she said, as soon as she was referred to someone to be diagnosed, they could immediately tell that there were issues and it was most likely cerebral palsy.”
“I thank the Minister of State. I will certainly share the details with the Minister. I presume the Minister of State is talking about the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. The little girl's mother did reach out to the Minister for Health on this issue and did not receive a response. She reached out to primary care and she reached out to the hospital. She contacted everybody and was, as I said, sent around from one person to the other, and nobody knew or would take responsibility for what had happened. She does not know if this was just a slip-up by one person who missed something on their desk and did not sign off on it or whether there is a backlog in how the procedure operates, so she does not know if she is the only one.”
“Okay, this mother allows time for that because when she realised that the child was growing out of the brace she notified the CDNT straight away to ensure that a new brace could be ordered, but there is no excuse for the two-month delay on a purchase order for something the child will need on an ongoing basis. When the mother tried to follow up on this to see who was responsible for this delay, she could not get an answer. She contacted Cavan General Hospital because she was told it was a matter for the paediatric department there. Everyone she talked to said, "No, it is not me, but I will try to find out who it is." She was passed from pillar to post, and it is not good enough, so I want to know what can be done about this situation.”
“That would mean that she would have to go to Cappagh, get a cast on her leg, and go back the following week to get the cast off and see how much the leg has moved back into the correct position, and get another cast put on. It is a procedure that would have been totally avoidable had the brace been ordered on time and given to the little girl to allow her to walk. Now you might say that maybe this is just a once-off, but it is not because the mother had to wait three months last year for the same thing. This is the second time it has happened so it is likely happening to other children as well. I therefore want to highlight this. I ask for a much better procedure in having leg braces replaced. A mother should not have to wait months for an initial appointment, first of all.”
“When the purchase order was granted and they contacted the mother, they wanted to order the brace straight away but the mother pointed out that two months had passed and the child had grown again since then. The brace may not fit so she needs another appointment. She has an appointment for this Friday to have the brace remeasured but they have informed her it could take three weeks after that before the brace is delivered. They are made here in Ireland but it will still take about three weeks. The mother is really worried. She has seen the regression in the child. She said that her daughter may now need to go for serial casting, although hopefully she will not.”
“When the child attended the appointment, she met a very experienced person who measured her for the brace, and said if she could order it directly she would have it within a week. However, it could not be ordered directly because there is a requirement to get a purchase order from the HSE to cover the cost of the brace. She applied for the purchase order that day. It was granted last week, into the middle of April. We have a two-month delay in getting the purchase order. In the meantime, the child has outgrown the brace completely and can no longer wear it. She is trying to walk as best she can without the brace. Her mother and father have seen regression in her legs. Her physiotherapist has seen regression in her muscles and in her legs as well. Due to this delay, the child is suffering this regression.”
“I want to raise the issue of obtaining an ankle-foot orthosis, AFO, brace for a child with cerebral palsy in Cavan. I was contacted by the mother of a four-year-old child who has cerebral palsy. Children grow very fast and muscle grows faster than bone. These braces become too tight and non-workable as a child grows, so they have to be replaced on a regular basis. The mother realised that she was outgrowing the brace last November so she contacted her CDNT and informed them of this. They referred the child for new braces to Ottobock, a company based in Cappagh Hospital that has an outreach clinic in Cavan. That referral was made in November. In January, she received correspondence that there was an appointment on 13 February, so already we have a two-and-a-half-month wait for this appointment.”
“If farmers, farm contractors and hauliers have to absorb the extra costs, it will just end up affecting the food being produced. It is either not going to be produced, not brought from the ports or to the ports for export, or the price is going to go way up, which will affect every single person in the country. Everyone is trying to survive and to deal with all of the other costs that are arising. One issue that was raised with me on a regular basis was the lack of supports for self-employed people. It is a real bone of contention that there are no real supports for self-employed people if they end up losing their business. This is an issue that really needs to be addressed.”
“There was huge anger at the threat of the use of the Army against the people. The Defence Forces are there to protect the country and its people. They are not there to be used on the citizens of this country. There was huge anger about that and it propelled more people to go out and protest than were initially intending to do so. They went out to state their opposition to that. We know this started with the illegal war on Iran waged by the warmongers Trump and Netanyahu, but the Government needs to be prepared. These crises arise. They are outside of the control of the Government and everybody acknowledges that but we knew from the Ukrainian war that this would drive up fuel prices. We need to be prepared to ensure the people of the country do not end up suffering.”
“I saw several different businesses, at different intervals, delivering food and drinks to the protesters. There were ordinary people, who were not business people there too. One woman came up while I was there and said that she so appreciated what the protesters were doing. She had a tray of home-made scones and buns for the protesters. She said that she had a daughter with a disability and was driving her to appointments on a regular basis. She had seen for herself the increases in the cost of diesel and it was crippling her. We had carers there too. They cannot cope. They are trying to do their calls but the extra that they are spending every week on fuel means that it is costing them money to work. They are not very well paid in that sector, as we know, but they do very important work.”
“Bus drivers are affected. Around 95% of the school bus fleet, for example, is private contractors who have entered into contracts with the Department of education. They have a set amount for the year but the additional cost of fuel has not been factored in. What are they supposed to do? Are they to just suck it up and go on about their business? They cannot do that. This is going to put them out of business. They were really at the pin of their collar. This is happening on top of everything else that has been happening in the country in the last few years. The cost of fuel has been going up, as have energy, rent and construction costs. Everything going up has just led to people being at the pin of their collar and they cannot cope any more. There was immense goodwill towards the protesters.”
“They felt really let down because the Government did not meet them on that first day and did not listen to them in Dublin. If some effort had been made to meet them on that first day it would not have escalated into what it did for the rest of the week. They just wanted to be listened to and for people to understand. I spoke to one haulier who has a number of trucks on the road. He said it has cost him an extra €18,000 in fuel over the past month. He has entered into contracts with his customers so he cannot add on that cost. He would not want to do that anyway because it would just end up going onto the products that he is delivering and the ordinary person will have to pay but he cannot sustain that. An agricultural contractor told me that he is spending, on average, €500 a day on diesel and that is not sustainable.”
“No. A protest was held in Cavan over the weekend. It started on Friday and went on until lunchtime yesterday. I attended on Saturday and Sunday for a number of hours and I went there because I wanted to talk to the people who were there. There were farmers, farming contractors and hauliers present, as well as lots of other people who were just there to support them. I did not witness any infiltration by far-right groups. In fact, I heard of instances where some people from the far right turned up and were told to go away, that their kind were not wanted there. What I found among the protesters was that while there was very good-natured camaraderie, they were very angry. They were angry at the Government because they felt really let down.”
“If hauliers do not get the help they need, food will not get to the supermarket from the ports. If bus drivers do not get the help they need, children will not get to school. This is very serious, and it is not being addressed.”
“We do not yet have the weather to turn off the heating, especially for older or disabled people. It is still cold and very damp. We heard a lot in the lead-up to the election of 2024 about what was going to happen for disabled people and all the supports that were going to be given to them. There was nothing in budget 2026, nothing in the half measures a few weeks ago and nothing in the half measures of this week to assist them to afford to live in a little bit of comfort. As I said here earlier, they are choosing between eating and heating. We have to remember that the people who are suffering on the ground are the people who elected the TDs and Ministers. These people are just being ignored at the moment and are not being listened to. If farmers do not get the help they need, food will not be produced.”
“I think it is a matter of some sort of a rebate you have to apply for based on the amount of fuel consumed last year, providing receipts and making sure you are tax compliant, etc. Why is the price not just being reduced at the pumps to help farmers? They need it now. There has been nothing on kerosene. Older people and disabled people in particular are really being affected by the increasing cost of kerosene. I was rung yesterday by a woman who is a family carer for her husband, who is disabled, and who herself has many health issues. Her oil is about to run out. She said she cannot afford the current price of home heating oil. She was hoping to God there would be some reduction in the measures to be introduced. She said she cannot even put the heating on. She is afraid to do so in case the last little bit runs out.”
“I want to raise the package of measures the Government is to introduce this week, which it announced on Sunday and hopes to have before the Dáil later on. Actually, I want to rephrase that. I should have referred to half measures because they are not going to address the situation, just as the measures a few weeks ago did not address the then situation, as was predicted by my colleague Pearse Doherty in the Dáil. Any reduction in the price of diesel or petrol is just going to be wiped out by the continual rises in fuel prices. A man rang me yesterday to say that the price of diesel had gone up in his local area by 10 cent per litre yesterday. He asked me when the measures were coming in. There has been nothing on green diesel at the pumps either.”
“It is important that we address the issues that are causing the backlog so that we can have a fair system to ensure that people are properly informed and have the information and support to exit the wardship and be able to make decisions for themselves.”
“That age is a really important time of life for many young people. They are looking at how their lives are going to progress and whether they are going to engage in further education, employment or whatever it might be. That could be delayed because they do not have the right to make those decisions for themselves. There are a number of issues here. It is unfortunate that this matter was not addressed in a more timely fashion and that this amending Bill was not broadened to discuss many more of the issues that are involved here. Amendments have been ruled out of order. Those amendments were all vital to addressing these issues. The same happened when the Bill was before the Dáil and the disability matters committee. Amendments were not approved and discussed because they did not fit within the narrow confines of the Bill.”
“We have people in this country, many with intellectual disabilities, who are in wardship, but what I read from this Bill is that, while they will be notified of the discharge process, they will not be taken through it. It is not explained to them. That needs to be done. There needs to be information provided in an accessible format for them and their families to ensure they understand the process as much as possible, and that there is a fair way of addressing and assessing their capacity and the appropriate supports are put in place after that. I am concerned about how the Bill treats children in wardship. If a child in wardship is due to exit at the age of 18, is that going to be delayed for up to 18 months? If so, they could be 19 or 19 and a half before they get out of it.”
“If we do not address the issues causing the backlog, we will end up back here again in another year or 18 months, and we cannot have that. The issues causing the backlog seem to be that there are difficulties engaging legal representatives with the appropriate skills and knowledge to support discharge. That has been referred to by previous speakers. We need to look at that. We need to properly resource the Legal Aid Board, the national advocacy service and the Decision Support Service. They all have a part to play in this, and I do not think they have been adequately resourced to address the number of people who are still wards of court or in wardship. I am concerned that this is not compliant with the UNCRPD. The Minister of State is aware that "nothing about us without us" is a mantra for that convention.”
“The Minister of State is welcome. There is no doubt that we will have to pass this legislation today because if we do not, we leave the 1,000 or so people still in wardship in legal limbo. It is really unfortunate, however, that it has been left to the last minute. The Department, or the Minister of State's predecessor, must have foreseen that this issue would arise because only slightly more than a quarter of the people who were in wardship when the Act commenced three years ago have been discharged from wardship at this stage. There are obviously problems within the system. That, as I said, had to be foreseen. Had this been brought forward earlier, perhaps a year or even six months ago, we could have had a much wider debate about addressing some of the issues as to what was causing the backlog.”
“That is rightly so - they have to prioritise people who might not be able to come home from hospital or a care institution without adaptions made to their homes or who need full-time care - but there are many people who might have issues with their roofs or windows and doors and the condition of their houses is deteriorating. If they could get the grant now, it would save money in the future because many older people, if they have issues with their roof, for example, are fearful of a storm coming and making it much worse and much more expensive to repair if the damage is not addressed now. I ask again that we have statements on these grants or an indication from the Minister that he will increase the money for the grants for this important work.”
“We need to see that co-operation between the two bodies much improved so that there are solutions found for individuals with intellectual disabilities or disabilities of any nature and they can live an independent life without relying on elderly parents for care. The other issue is the adaptation and mobility aid grants and housing aid for older people. Last year, many people applied for their grants to Cavan County Council. There was only so much money available for it and there were so many applications by priority 1 applicants that the money was all spent on those.”
“I raised this a few weeks ago, certainly some time since Christmas, and Senator Kyne indicated that he would arrange a debate with the Minister on the issue. That has not happened yet and I wonder if it could happen as soon as possible. Councils and the HSE are not working together to ensure a solution is brought forward. I have spoken to some councils, which have said they are willing to provide the accommodation - it sometimes needs to be adapted and it sometimes does not - but it needs a support or care plan in place by the HSE and that is not forthcoming. When the then Minister, Darragh O’Brien, introduced the Housing for All policy document in the last Dáil, it was indicated that the HSE and councils would work more closely together but that has not happened in all instances.”
“I want to raise the Before We Die campaign. There was a “Prime Time” programme last Thursday night that featured people from the campaign. It is a group of elderly parents of adults with intellectual disabilities who are living at home who are worried that there is no plan in place for accommodation for their children when the elderly parents pass away. Some parents said they hoped their son or daughter passed away before them, which is a terrible thing to say, because they are so worried about what will happen to them afterwards. This is an issue we heard about regularly at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters in the last term and that I have raised several times in the Dáil and here.”
“Many young people aged ten to 17 are in education. There are thousands more between the age of 18 and 24 who are also providing unpaid care within the family. This affects their ability to socialise and mix with friends or participate in activities outside of the home. It affects their school attendance and ability to keep up with their studies in the school system. Many young carers have mental health issues and experience loneliness. I want to create awareness of the fact that many young people provide care. We need to identify that this is happening and provide supports for those young people.”
“A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a young carers conference. Senator Clonan was also in attendance that day. It was a very enlightening day that was held in University College Dublin, UCD. It was bringing awareness to the fact that, according to Family Carers Ireland, we had an estimated 67,000 young carers in Ireland who were carrying out unpaid care in the family caring for siblings who may have disabilities, parents with disabilities, illnesses or even addiction issues, or grandparents. Many do not self identify as carers and do not realise they may be entitled to support. It is very important that we create awareness of this in order that young people know they are providing unpaid care and are entitled to support. We need to create awareness in society in general, but in particular across the education sector.”
“After he promised the councillors he would increase the allocation, and recognised all of the work that the staff of Cavan County Council put into preparing a report on the roads and the funding, he ignored all of that and came out and gave a smaller allocation this year. We need to have the Minister in the House to discuss the allocation. We have brought up the issue a number of times but have never had the Minister into the House to answer questions on the roads allocation.”
“The announcement was not made until February and it was not increased. In fact, there is less money available this year than there was last year. This is very disappointing. It is very disappointing for the councillors in the area and for all the Oireachtas Members. I know that Senator Sarah O'Reilly raised this issue yesterday and I raise this matter in support of what she said. We need the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to come into the Chamber and discuss the roads allocation for Cavan. We heard that day of other counties getting a much more significant roads allocation in proportion to the length of their roads.”
“On Monday of last week, Cavan County Council invited all the Oireachtas Members from Cavan and Monaghan to attend a council meeting to discuss the roads allocation. There were four Members of this House in attendance, namely, Senators Sarah O'Reilly, Joe O'Reilly, Wilson and I, as well as four of the five TDs representing the constituency. The Fianna Fáil councillors met the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, prior to Christmas about the roads allocation and how poor it is. We have approximately 3,000 km of local roads in the county. Sufficient money is being provided to repair less than 50 km of those roads each year. The Minister promised the councillors that the announcement of the roads allocation for this year would be made in December and that it would be significantly increased.”
“She is not a speech and language therapist and neither are the teachers in the special school. Everybody is doing their best, but it is a point of urgency that she gets the required help. I ask that we have even a discussion with the Minister for disability on receiving help on this issue.”
“The team has told her it has only one therapist employed and it is trying to recruit more. Vanessa's question is, if the CDNT cannot provide that therapy now when required, should it or the HSE not be sourcing it from somewhere else? I would like to put the question to the Minister for disability. We need to ensure that if a CDNT cannot meet the needs of the children, it should be outsourcing the service because this is something that is needed now. As the Deputy Leader can appreciate, when a child cannot communicate properly, that builds up frustration and can lead to other behaviours which can be damaging to the child or others. It is really important. Every parent wants the best for their child. Vanessa is really struggling as she sees her children trying to talk but not getting the required help.”
“I was contacted by a lady named Vanessa. She has 12-old-year twins, John and Leah. John and Leah have dual diagnoses of autism and moderate intellectual disability, so they have quite complex needs. They both attend a special school. They are both non-verbal and they use an augmentative and alternative communication, AAC, device for communication. In recent months, they have both been trying hard to communicate - to talk - and they really need speech and language therapy. The last time a speech and language therapist saw them was a year and a half ago. They both had an individual appointment at the end of August 2022 and there has been nothing since. Vanessa has been constantly on to the children's disability network team, CDNT, to provide speech and language therapy.”
“Putting therapists into special schools and some other schools will help, but children should be getting that therapy in the community from an early age. That would make a huge difference to their ability to access inclusive education in the school nearest them. Parents should not have to fight for everything. They have stood up again to fight against what they thought was an unfair act. They are concerned about what is going to happen down the road. I welcome the that there is going to be proper dialogue about how we move forward, but it must take in more than just SNA access. It must take a holistic view of where we go with special education because the number of children who require additional support in our schools is increasing. The numbers are also increasing internationally.”
“The State signed up to two conventions, one on the rights of the child and one on the rights of persons with disability. Those conventions state clearly that children, regardless or needs or abilities, should receive an inclusive education appropriate to their needs. The lack of early intervention for children in our schools is detrimental. We know that many children are not receiving the supports they need from an early age. As soon as a diagnosis is achieved or parents realise that their children are, for example, not speaking as much as they should be, they should be able to access speech and language therapy, occupational therapy or physiotherapy. That is not happening and it is having a detrimental effect on education in our schools. Teachers are not therapists. They are not able to provide the intervention that is required.”
“The EPSEN Act is quite clear that all children need to get support so they can be educated in an inclusive environment. For too long we saw children who had a physical disability or an additional need of some sort segregated and put into an institution. We have moved a long way from that. We are moving towards an inclusive education system. However, we are going to reverse away from that and regress if we start to cut SNA access because it would mean that children are unable to access an education in the mainstream school, or in the special class in the mainstream school, because they will not have the supports to do so. They will end up refusing to go to school, which I hear from parents at times, because they do not get enough support. The school may put them on a reduced timetable for the day because it cannot cope.”
“The Education Act means we are supposed to provide education for every person in the State. The Education (Admission to Schools) Act means that a child cannot be refused access to a school based on a disability. The most important is probably the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs, EPSEN, Act. It was recently reviewed. The EPSEN Act provides that a child with SEN should be educated in an inclusive environment with children who do not have SEN unless it is not beneficial for the child or the other children. The Act defines SEN as "a restriction in the capacity of the person to participate in and benefit from education on account of an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or leaning disability". It is not just those with a physical disability who have a primary care need and require SNA access.”
“More and more schools are willing to open a special class, which is great, but some are already full to capacity space-wise and need additional modular rooms or new-build rooms. Decisions are being made to open classes in schools where there is physical space rather than where the need is. It ends up that students do not get their education in the local school with their siblings, or in the school nearest to them, but instead must travel a distance to a school that has the physical space. I do not know if that is an issue with the Department of public expenditure and reform, which may not be providing sufficient funds to open additional classes where they are needed. We have a number of Acts that deal with equality. The Equality Act prevents discrimination on the basis of a number of criteria, including disability.”
“Every year, we are reacting to a crisis as students return to school. There are inevitably students with additional needs who do not have a school place or who are placed in an inappropriate setting. The Department is working in silos that are not working together. Indeed, a number of Departments are not working together. We need more teachers who have specialised knowledge of special education and that is an ongoing issue. I know the training is going to be improved. We need more SNAs. No school would tell you that it has enough SNA access. You can imagine the alarm when schools heard allocations were to be cut. There is also an issue with building and the provision of additional space for special classes within schools.”
“They do not know who the SENO is. I do not know whether the role of the SENO has changed or there just are not enough. We know that the number of children with additional needs has increased. Perhaps there are not enough SENOs, but they do not know the children. I am hearing that not just from parents but also from teachers and principals. The SENO comes to the school on an irregular basis, stays for half an hour to an hour in a classroom and then judges whether a child needs SNA access. They do not know the children. If we are trusting principals to allocate SNAs fairly to the children on the basis of those with the most need, we need to start trusting them as to whether they need SNA access and how much they need without the SENO's input, if the SENO is not going to be more familiar with the school and the children in it with needs.”
“My predecessor as SEN co-ordinator told me that to appeal would be to risk losing some SNA allocation. That fear remains, whether it is realistic or not. Principals do not want to appeal the SNA allocation, even though they require more SNAs in the school, in case their allocation is cut. That is an issue that needs to be addressed. At the time, I knew well the special educational needs officer, SENO, assigned to the school. I had regular conversations with her. More important, she knew the students who were to come to the school as they transitioned from primary school to secondary school. She knew what their needs were, knew their parents' numbers and talked to them regularly. Parents could lift the phone and talk to her. I regularly meet parents and, when I ask if they have been talking to their SENOs, they ask who that is.”
“If an SNA is not present, the teacher cannot ask that student to leave with being accompanied because it is not safe. Therefore, such children have to stay in the class. They are upset, they upset the rest of the class and the teacher cannot get on with teaching. SNA support is vital. I taught at second level for many years. I worked before and after there were SNAs in the school, and I saw the difference and the contribution that they made. I was the special educational needs, SEN, co-ordinator in the school for a time. I would have to look at the SNA allocation and decide, along with the principal, where SNAs should spend their time and to whom they should give their time. We would sometimes realise that we did not have enough SNAs for all the children in the school with additional needs and talked about appealing the decision.”
“I know a pause was announced and then an assurance was given that there would be no cuts in the next school year, with an additional €19 million provided. However, people are still concerned about what is going to happen after that. Circular 30/2014 contains a focus on primary care needs and granting access to SNAs based on primary care needs. We know that many more children are granted access to SNA support than those who just have primary care needs, and rightly so. If SNA access is withdrawn from a child in the classroom, it affects the whole class. The teacher will not be able to teach and the children will not be able to learn if one student in the class who has additional needs requires a movement break or needs to leave the class to regulate.”
“The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is welcome. As the Minister, Deputy Naughton, acknowledged in her speech, the debacle over the past few weeks has caused much distress and worry to SNAs, parents, principals and teachers. It all arose from the result of the review of SNA allocation and how that was communicated and addressed. I commend the actions of SNAs, principals, teachers and parents who stood up and called out what they thought was very unfair. They only did so for parents to protect their children. Some of the SNAs who contacted me were worried about their jobs, and rightly so, but the most concern they had was for the children they are providing support to in the schools and the thought that those children would have to go without that support.”
“We need to see them working across the board in providing the supports that women need. I could go on about the courts. The courts system needs to be reviewed in relation to how it deals with women and people who are subjected to domestic violence. Recently, along with my colleague Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh, I had the honour of co-hosting a very strong and resilient lady, Margaret Loftus, who went through not just the abuse from her ex-husband but the abuse of a system as she tried to get justice. She is a former member of An Garda Síochána and so is her former husband. She encountered misogyny and corruption within the force to try to block her getting justice. Thankfully, the current Garda Commissioner, Justin Kelly, stood up and made sure she got justice which is really welcome.”