The Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton would have been “broadly aware” that some special needs assistants (SNAs) could have to move schools on foot of reviews, the most senior official in the Department of Education has indicated.
Department secretary general Bernie McNally told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (Pac) on Thursday there were no cuts being planned to special education services for children. Communications difficulties had mostly contributed to the political controversy which erupted after dozens of schools maintained they were to lose SNAs, she said.
The controversy over special education dominated proceedings at the committee on Thursday following recent outcry about letters sent to more than 190 schools informing them of reductions in their SNA complement as part of a reshuffling of resources.
Several members of the committee questioned the Department of Education and the Department of Public Expenditure about the Government’s announcement earlier this week that, on foot of a new €19 million investment, no schools would see SNA numbers fall over the next year as part of a redeployment process.
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McNally apologised to parents for any upset caused over the issue but insisted that there were no cuts planned. She said there had been a lot of misinformation.
She argued that there was funding for the provision of an additional 1,700 SNAs this year. She said there was “collective responsibility” for what had happened, but maintained the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) had responsibility in this area and it had sent out the letters to schools regarding changes to their SNA numbers.
Questioned by Cathy Bennett of Sinn Féin about whether Naughton knew in advance that the letters regarding SNAs were being sent out to schools, McNally said there was a policy “that authorised the NCSE to do exactly what it did”.
“Whether we have 25,000 SNAs or 35,000 SNAs, we have to make sure SNAs are targeted at the children who most need them.”
“There are about 140,000 children who move in the [school] system every year – children move and therefore the resources have to move with them.”
McNally said the Minister would not have directed that letters be sent out to schools regarding their SNA personnel. She said the NCSE “did its job in communicating and operating the scheme”.
“Ministers would have been broadly aware that resources would be moved,” she said.
Members of the committee sought details on whether the €19 million announced this week by the Government to maintain existing SNA numbers in all schools represented new money or whether it would be drawn from elsewhere in budget for education or other public services.
The handling of the SNA issue was criticised by Government deputies as well as the Opposition.
McNally told Seamus McGrath of Fianna Fáil that the department was “absolutely aware” that the NCSE review of SNA numbers in schools were ongoing and knew letters were being sent out.
Department of Education assistant secretary Martina Mannion said it would not have had sight of all the content of individual letters but may have seen the broad outline. She said the department would have known that the letters would tell schools their SNA numbers would either increase, decrease or stay the same.
McGrath said he believed the number of SNAs who could have been affected by the redeployment move would have been greater than 500 given that some posts are divided between a number of staff.
Eoghan Kenny of the Labour Party warned that a new crisis in special education was now inevitable as the level of growing demand for such services was outstripping the resources currently available. McNally said the Department of Education was working on a plan and would be submitting a memo containing new projections to the Government.
A Department of Education and Youth spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday evening: “Both Ministers would have known at a policy level that reviews were taking place, however they would not have been aware of operational matters, including the timing and number of letters, or the content of letters issuing to individual schools.”
