Special needs challenge to minister

EDUCATION Minister Batt O’Keeffe was disingenuous in his assertion (February 1) that “we know from history that an estimate by a trade union should never be accepted as an undisputed fact in a news story”.

The minister knows well, based on correspondence sent by IMPACT to his own office, that the estimated figure of 1,200 special needs assistant (SNA) posts is based on figures released in June 2009 by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) which is carrying out the review of these posts.

This review continues to take place in a post-McCarthy report environment. That report claimed there was scope to reduce the number of SNAs by up to 2,000. In that context, IMPACT’s estimate of 1,200 posts is almost conservative.