‘We got this wrong,’ Tánaiste says of government handling of SNA review

By Bairbre Holmes and Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press Association

Tánaiste Simon Harris has said the government “got this wrong” on a review of how Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) are allocated at schools.

A review and reallocation of SNAs for the coming school year was paused after it caused concern and outrage among parents, teachers and SNAs.

At a meeting on Monday night, the Government agreed not to reduce the number of SNAs at any schools from September, but in schools where the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) said more SNAs were needed, they will be allocated.

The decision will cost an extra €19 million in funding at the Department of Education.

Mr Harris said that while there was a “strong logic” to review SNA allocations, “the buck stops with us” in how the review was handled.

“There’s been a lot of hurt caused over the course of the last week, a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety. We got this wrong,” he told Newstalk’s The Claire Byrne Show.

“The reality of the situation is when something goes wrong, you’ve got to put your hands up and you’ve got to fix it.

“What I heard from parents across the country, what I heard from SNAS and what I heard from teachers was that the sequencing here matters.”

The number of SNAs at around 580 schools was reviewed by the NCSE for the first time since the pandemic, and a third of those schools were told that the number of SNAs would be reduced from September.

The Government paused the decision this week after a backlash, and said that once a revised circular, a redeployment scheme and a workforce development plan for SNAs are published, the NCSE will again review SNA allocations at schools for the 27/28 academic year.

Mr Harris said the review would be applied in an “only upward manner” from September and said that the 2014 circular needed to be updated.

“The complexity of what goes on in a classroom is very, very different today than it was in 2014 and we need to use this time now to get this right.”

He added: “Let’s make sure something good comes from this. So I mean, what can happen now, within the next couple of weeks, we can have a redeployment scheme for SNAs.

“Now, in fairness to everybody, and in fairness to the Department of Education, the trade union Forsa, that’s been worked on for quite a period of time, where basically a special needs assistant will have the same options as a teacher when it comes to redeployment, that’s important in terms of job security and career security. So that’s almost there.”

He said the first workforce plan for special education will also be drawn up and published.

“I don’t think this should just be explained away as a communications issue. I think there’s a deeper conversation we need to have around inclusive education and supporting children with additional needs in 2026.

“So I’m not here to say anything other than yes, this was a week that caused a huge amount of upset, but something good has to come from it, and we’re determined that it will.”