McDonald: 'Cruel' SNA review should be abandoned, not paused

The Dublin Central TD suggested that the Government does not “fully understand or appreciate or even value the work” conducted by SNAs

Mary Lou McDonald, leader of Sinn Fein, said: “It is a cruel approach. What we need now is not a pause, because their pause has simply fuelled concerns. It hasn't settled anybody's worries."

The Government has shown “utter disregard for children” through its special needs assistant (SNA) review and should stop the controversial process rather than implement a pause, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.

The Dublin Central TD suggested that the Government had been “cruel” and shown it does not “fully understand or appreciate or even value the work” conducted by SNAs.

Education minister Hildegarde Naughton announced last week that she was pausing a review of SNAs following huge backlash from schools, parents, and unions representing SNAs.

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) issued letters to several schools advising them that they could lose part of their SNA allocation.

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Ms McDonald denied that the coalition had shown “leadership” by pausing the process.

“Far from leadership, they have shown utter disregard for children all across schools in this State,” she said. "They clearly don't fully understand, or appreciate, or even value the work that SNAS do day in and day out.

“Their approach now is to undermine the work of SNAs in schools, and, therefore, to damage the experience of children, many very vulnerable children who absolutely rely on their SNAs to go to school, stay in school, engage with the curriculum, build their confidence, make friends, all of the absolute building blocks for our children and young people [need] not alone to succeed educationally and academically within the school system, but also to prepare them for life.

“It is a cruel approach. What we need now is not a pause, because their pause has simply fuelled concerns. It hasn't settled anybody's worries.

“They need to take this back. They need to go into reverse and make it absolutely clear that schools will have the SNA supports that they require.” 

Speaking on The Week in Politics, Labour’s education spokesperson Eoghan Kenny stated that the criteria for accessing an SNA were overly “rigid” and that there were “children in this country now who have secondary care needs who will no longer be able to access an SNA” because the criteria focused “on primary care needs”.

Higher education minister James Lawless said that it was “not his understanding that the criteria” have changed.

When asked if children with secondary additional needs would lose SNAs in September, Mr Lawless said he did not have a “crystal ball”.

Elsewhere, Ms McDonald stated that Unionist MP Gregory Campbell was “obnoxious” when he approached President Catherine Connolly at an event in Derry and scolded her for not referring to the city as “Londonderry”.

“For those of us who are not unionists, Derry is Derry, is Derry. An Doire.

“Unionists use their terminology. We could reduce important work that needs to be done in terms of reconciliation, building community and building momentum for reunification; you could lose that by going down into ridiculous rabbit holes like that.

“You call it Derry. Potato, potato. Tomato, tomato. I think to get into a joust with the President on that basis was very, very poor form.” 

Ms McDonald confirmed that Sinn Féin will select its candidate for the Dublin Central by-election on Wednesday. The election, held in the party leader’s own constituency, will take place in May to fill the seat vacated by former Fine Gael minister Paschal Donohoe.

Sinn Féin councillor Janice Boylan and Gillian Sheratt, the mother of the late scoliosis patient Harvey Morrison-Sheratt, will both contest the selection convention.

Ms McDonald said the by-elections in Dublin Central and Galway West will be “a referendum on the government”.