AFTER A TURBULENT week, the government has completed the final manoeuvre of its u-turn on cuts to roles of special needs assistants (SNAs) at a portion of schools.

It comes ahead of nationwide protests scheduled for tomorrow and later this week across the country, after concern rapidly mounted over the past week at the government’s plan and about what the next steps might be.

So how did we get here and, more importantly, is there a concern that similar cuts be brought in further down the line? 

How did this kick off?

An estimated 180 schools across the country received notifications this month from the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) telling them their SNA allocations will be reduced for the next school year.

The NCSE, which is responsible for the delivery of special education, allocates SNA posts based on reviews of care needs in each school.

These allocations can change due to student numbers, care needs, or pupils moving between school levels.

There are over 23,000 SNAs in the system, so the department and government ministers had been at pains to point out that “only 1%” had been identified by the NCSE as “surplus in schools”.

However – and crucially for those directly involved – this still meant that hundreds of SNA posts would have been affected in the shakeup.

What was the reaction to these planned cuts?

The pushback was immediate, with more than 40,000 people attaching their names to a petition to halt the loss of SNAs posts. 

There were also reports of panic at a Fianna Fáil parliamentary meeting over the development, with the Dáil hearing further complaints from TDs about the cuts coming to schools in their constituency. 

The lack of clarity regarding why changes were being imposed was raised by several TDs, as some schools found they faced having their complement of SNAs cut down by more than half. 

How did the government react to the pushback? 

Just days after many schools were contacted informing them of the cuts, the government said there would be a pause in the process. 

But anger deepened over the weekend as repeated media interviews with government ministers failed to satisfy the burning question for many: how long would the pause last – and whenever it ended, would there still be cuts to SNA roles at individual schools?

An answer came last night: Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton announced that the government had decided it would not proceed with the plan for the next school year.

The decision will cost an extra €19 million in funding at the Department of Education.

What has the Education Minister said?

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One programme this afternoon, Naughton conceded that “something obviously went wrong” with how the proposed SNA cuts were communicated.

“This was poorly communicated, and there is a collective responsibility here on this. I’m not happy with the way it played out, but I want to make sure now that we get this right,” she said.

“But the communications around it, and the sequencing of the communications, was not done correctly, and I absolutely accept and I’m going to rectify that now.”

Education Minister Hildegarde Naughton Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Now what? 

The Government has agreed not to reduce the number of SNAs at any schools from September, but in schools where the NCSE has said more SNAs are needed, they will be allocated.

The NCSE will again review SNA allocations at schools for the academic year starting September 2027, and the minister has said she’ll have more detail on the longer-term plan once she recieves details in three specific documents. 

These three documents include the redeployment review – around which this current controversy arose. There is also a Workforce Development Plan that Forsa hopes will produce findings on the professionalisation of the SNA role, in particular concerning a career progression path and professional recognition for SNAs.

The final review awaited, Naughton said, is that of a department circular about the role of the SNA. This follows on from a much-contested 2014 circular (which is essentially a policy document) that considered the SNA role was similar to that of a healthcare assistant.

Head of education with the Forsa trade union Andy Pike said this morning that as things stand there’s a risk of the issue getting “kicked down the road for 12 months”.

Writing for The Journal today, CEO of Inclusion Ireland Derval McDonagh said that the SNA allocation debate points to “deeper, systemic issues” that face our education system.

“Where is the strategic thinking from the government? Where is the plan for a progressive realisation of a better model of education?”

Are the protests still going ahead? 

Yes. The group Save our SNAs and Forsa have both said they will still be taking place to send a message to the government about the unhappiness.

Locations for demonstrations tomorrow include outside the Dáil in Dublin (at 5pm), outside the Education Minister’s office in Galway (5pm) Merchants Quay in Limerick (5pm), Cork’s City Hall (5pm) and further protests in Roscommon town (3.30pm), Castlerea, Co Roscommon (2pm), Buncrana, Donegal (5pm) and Wexford town’s Crescent Quay (5pm).

Other protests to take place at 5pm tomorrow include in Dundalk, Newbridge, Monaghan, Mullingar, Killarney, and Edenderry. Demonstrations will also take place in Ardee, Co Louth at 5.15pm and Ashbourne, Co Meath at 6pm.

More pressure today

Political parties have continued piling pressure on today.

During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that while the confirmation that there will be no immediate SNA cuts this September brings relief to families, the abrupt pause has caused “deep and lasting” uncertainty.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that the rollback was an effort to “buy yourself time and to alleviate pressure on government”.

In his response Taoiseach Micheál Martin noted that the number of SNAs had increased from 16,000 in 2020 to an anticipated 25,000 in September 2026.