Education minister 'had awareness' of SNA cuts before letters sent to schools, Dáil committee hears

A protest against SNA cuts outside Cork City Hall on Wednesday evening. Picture: Noel Sweeney

The Department of Education has said it shares “collective responsibility” for the fiasco of special needs assistant (SNA) allocations, but insisted the minister knew cuts to those roles were to be implemented before the scandal broke.

Addressing the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, secretary general of the department Bernie McNally said minister for education Hildegarde Naughton “would have had awareness” sweeping cuts to SNA allocations were to happen.

Asked whether or not the minister knew letters were to be delivered to parents informing them of the cuts, Ms McNally said: “The minister would have had awareness, just as we did, of the general policy”, and would have been “broadly” aware letters were being sent.

“They knew the NCSE [National Council for Special Education] was doing its job,” she said.

She said the department “takes collective responsibility for the failure of communication so we absolutely apologise for the upset that was caused to parents” while adding the situation had led to “a lot of misinformation”.

Ms McNally said she wanted “to assure parents that there are no cuts”. 

While insisting “we all bear responsibility for this”, she said the NCSE “operates services and resources for special educational needs”.

Asked if she was blaming the NCSE for what had happened, she said: “No, collective responsibility,” but added, “they are the ones that operate and send out the letters”.

The tense hearing, which had been convened to discuss issues with how school grants are appropriated, was dominated by the SNA issue, which saw a massive outcry after letters were sent to parents around the country informing them of cuts to SNA levels in 194 schools following a review of allocations.

Ms McNally said her department engages “every day of the week... really, really closely” with the NCSE, but said regarding the specific allocation of SNAs, “a lot of the engagement was last year on this”.

Assistant secretary general of the department Martina Mannion acknowledged the department would likewise have known the letters regarding the SNA cuts “had increased reductions or remaining the same”, but insisted “the content was a matter for the NCSE”.

Asked why €19m in additional emergency funding to maintain the current level of SNAs for another year was allocated by the Cabinet and why it was not budgeted for in advance, Ms Mannion replied: “It was expected that we would be able to provide for the level of need in the system,” but said “that level of need subsequently became greater”.

Defending the process of reviewing SNA allocations, she said it was “very important that SNAs are allocated to where there is greatest need”, adding “the need is going to move”.

The department was unable to confirm whether or not that €19m allocation would see a similar level of cuts to other resources, with representative of the Department of Public Expenditure Georgina Hughes-Elders stating repeatedly the matter was being negotiated “internally with the Department of Education”, while adding her department had “only been asked for the money in recent days”.

Ms McNally reiterated “this wasn’t handled properly”, but said “a lot” of the problem had revolved around how the cuts were communicated.

“I can confirm that we’ll look at this process and how it’s communicated and how parents find out about the outcome,” she said.