‘My deaf child’s school is denying him an SNA’

Six-year-old Liam Cunneen, a deaf schoolboy from Co Cork, is still receiving only one hour of education a day due to an apparent shortage of special needs resources in his school.

As reported in the Irish Examiner in September, Liam, a student of St Columba’s National School in Douglas, has been on a restricted school day since April.

Having been moved from the deaf unit to the mainstream part of the school because of an improvement in his speech, Liam now needs a full-time special needs assistant (SNA).