{"id":302697,"date":"2026-02-17T15:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302697\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:22:07","slug":"review-of-sna-allocations-paused-after-backlash-from-teachers-parents-and-unions-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/302697\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of SNA allocations paused after backlash from teachers, parents and unions \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A controversial review of special needs assistant (SNA) allocations is being paused after criticism from teachers, parents and unions. <\/p>\n

Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton<\/a> on Tuesday said, having listened to issues raised by parents and school communities in recent days, she is pausing the review of allocations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to reiterate that there are no cuts to SNA numbers. I want to ensure that SNAs are with the children who most need their care,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The review sparked criticism after the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) contacted some schools indicating their allocations were being reduced. <\/p>\n

The Department of Education had said the number of SNAs allocated to a school can change for a variety of reasons, including fluctuating student numbers, changes in individual care needs or students moving from primary to post-primary school. <\/p>\n

Naughton said on Monday that 584 reviews have been carried out, with two-thirds of schools set to retain or grow their SNA allocation for 2026. However, 194 schools would see their allocation cut, she said then. <\/p>\n

Naughton told RT\u00c9 News she encouraged any school that felt its allocation was being unfairly reduced to use internal appeals processes run by the NCSE. She said SNAs were not going to be losing their jobs and a redeployment scheme would be available from September this year. <\/p>\n

She indicated at the time that a rethink was not being considered, urging schools to use the appeals mechanism. <\/p>\n

Trade union Forsa\u2019s<\/a> head of education Andy Pike said on Monday that a significant number of schools had received notifications that their SNA jobs were being \u201ccut\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there was a lack of clarity over how many jobs were being affected, with the overall number of SNAs due to increase by about 1,000 from September. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0How students who scored more than 600 points approached the months before the Leaving CertOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, in her statement on Tuesday Naughton announced a pause of the review and said she and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris are \u201cengaging intensively to ensure that all of the concerns raised are all understood and children with special educational needs are fully supported\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo further letters on SNA review outcomes will issue until these engagements have concluded in the coming weeks,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n

She said some \u20ac3 billion has been provided in 2026 for special education, while the number of SNAs has increased by 45 per cent since 2020. She said an additional 1,700 SNAs will support our children this year compared with during 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cSNAs play a critical role in our schools \u2013 I know how much they mean to school communities, parents and the children they support,\u201d Naughton said.<\/p>\n

In the D\u00e1il Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin insisted \u201cno SNA is being removed from any school during this school year\u201d and \u201cno SNA will lose their job because there\u2019s a redeployment scheme\u201d in place.<\/p>\n

Martin said he first introduced the SNA system, which had grown to close to 25,000. He said the numbers had grown by 45 per cent in the last five years alone.<\/p>\n

He told Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald: \u201cI understand fully the stress and the difficulty and the fear that can develop in terms of the potential of losing services or in a given school\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he said \u201cit\u2019s not plausible that there wouldn\u2019t be reviews\u201d and there were criticisms that \u201creviews should be more regular to make sure that our resource goes should be most in need\u201d because different needs arise every year.<\/p>\n

He accused the Sinn F\u00e9in leader of saying that \u201cevery SNA stays in situ forever irrespective of the need\u201d and said that did not make sense either.<\/p>\n

She said he could \u201crattle off big numbers, but that\u2019s no comfort to a parent who has seen their child progress and thrive with the support of an SNA that has seen them go from dreading school to loving school\u201d and parents were \u201cnow wracked with worry because their child will lose that support come September\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach\u2019s response was \u201cno help, no comfort, no solution, just appeal – a reply as cold as the cuts themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

F\u00f3rsa, which represents more than 18,000 staff in schools and early education, welcomed the Government\u2019s pause.<\/p>\n

Andy Pike, F\u00f3rsa\u2019s head of education, said: \u201cThis pause gives us an important opportunity to discuss a better way of planning and managing SNA allocations for the future. It is a significant step forward in recognising that the work of SNAs goes far beyond what is reflected in the current, outdated SNA circulars.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controversial review of special needs assistant (SNA) allocations is being paused after criticism from teachers, parents and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7038,43],"class_list":["post-302697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}