Mayo Sinn Féin Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Minister threat to cut Special needs assistants is heartless

Published: 23 February, 2010

Sinn Féin Councillor Thérèse Ruane is insisting that threatened cuts to special needs assistants in St. Anthony's Special School be reversed. This will cause massive hardship to extremely vulnerable young children as well as impacting on jobs. This is appalling and cannot be tolerated.

Cllr Ruane said:

"It is estimated that next week, more than 1,200 Special Needs Assistants will have been made redundant. Support is being withdrawn from children with a wide range of conditions within the Autism spectrum, ADHD, Dyslexia and in some cases Down's syndrome."

"This is a scandal and cannot be tolerated. Here in St. Anthony's Special School in Castlebar for example, four SNAs are facing redundancy. That's four out of 13, a 30 % reduction in staff. This is an outrage. How can St. Anthony's continue to provide the wonderful education they do, with such drastic cuts?

"Cuts to special needs support is not only heartless, the move will seriously impair these children's education for years to come having knock-on effects in the future. It is yet another example of this Government's short-sighted 'cost-cutting' measures. Special needs assistants are not a luxury that can be cut, they are absolutely essential and an integral part of the education system. Children with special needs are not second class citizens; they deserve adequate and equal care to any other child in this state.

"The Minister needs to get it out of his head that making blind cuts in an effort to save money will achieve anything unless he takes into account the very real impact that such cuts will have. These are children we are talking about - not numbers. They have a right to be educated in an appropriate environment with the appropriate supports to suit their needs."