Minister is urged ‘to do the right thing’ and reverse SNA cuts

A major cutback in special needs assistants needs to be reversed, Fianna Fáil has warned.

Charlie McConalogue, the party’s education spokesman, used a special Dáil debate on the issue to push the Government to change its mind.

“The 10% cut to special needs assistants will still go ahead in September despite the U-turn by the Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn. Mr Quinn’s late realisation that he made a mistake in signing off an additional 12% cut in resource teaching hours is welcome.

“It will come as a relief to parents and teachers that Minister Quinn once again has realised he made yet another mistake in targeting children with special needs for more cuts in September.

“However this is not the ‘full reversal’ of special needs cuts that the minister wants us to believe it is, and which is needed.

“While he has decided to reverse the 12% cut to resource hours, Minister Quinn’s 10% cut to SNAs still stands. This means that the 22,000 children who need SNAs will still see a reduction in that support when schools resume in September.

“The minister has shown that it is possible to find the money to protect crucial services for children with special needs when the will is there to do so. I am urging him to do the right thing and reverse the SNAs cuts too, so that no child with special needs suffers a reduction in support from September.”

Mr Quinn said it was misleading to talk about SNA “cuts” as the system was being restructured and roughly the same number of schools will have an increased number of SNAs as those that will see reductions. Mr Quinn said every child that needs an SNA will have access to one.

Mr McConalogue said Mr Quinn was trying to bury bad news. “It is interesting that the minister chose to bundle this announcement out on the eve of the Fianna Fáil motion calling for the reversal of SNA cuts and at a time when the entire news agenda is dominated by the Anglo Irish Bank tapes,” he said.

“It points to yet another failure of judgement on the part of Minister Quinn, and the timing of the announcement suggests a hope that questions about his leadership of his department will be drowned out. We recognise the fact that resource hours are being restored and parents will welcome this, but the axe remains over special needs assistants.”