Mary Lou McDonald

I am sure parents are watching this to see the Taoiseach's arrogance-----

30. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at a meeting of the British-Irish Council. [14300/26]

The report of the investigation into mental healthcare given to children and young people in Kerry has now been published. The young people affected, their distraught parents and their families have waited years for answers. The investigation of these case files of 300 children in north Kerry was, as the Taoiseach knows, originally ordered in the aftermath of the 2022 Maskey report. The distressin…

The difficulty is that the priority and focus has not been on the well-being of children and young people. In fact, many families and parents wonder what on earth is going on with this litany of appalling treatment of children and young people. We have children whose SNAs are being taken from them, children waiting for an assessment of need, children with no school places, parents forced to campai…

Of course it is not.

No, I am not.

That is a cynical-----

Given your record on children and young people in the State-----

The Taoiseach is not happy to answer questions.

I want to return to the Government's cuts to special needs assistants, SNAs, for schools and its pause, as the Taoiseach calls it. I want to establish exactly what that means. I raised the situation generally but also specifically with the Taoiseach yesterday. Fossa National School in Killarney has been written to in order to inform it that it will be losing four SNAs. Johnstown Boys National Sch…

Will those SNAs be maintained or lost?

No, you did not. What does it mean?

That does not mean anything.

Some of the words being used by parents, special needs assistants, SNAs and teachers alike in the past few days are "panic", "fear" and "anger". They are beside themselves with worry after schools received letters informing them of the decision of the Government to cut their SNA allocations. We have heard of schools losing as many as five or six SNAs. These cuts will be devastating for children wi…

Níl an Rialtas ar a dtaobh. Níl sé ar thaobh na SNAs, na páistí nó na múinteoirí.

The Taoiseach seems to not accept or understand that schools in any event have been struggling and are under pressure. If there is an excess of SNAs across the school communities of this land, I certainly have not seen it. I think all of our colleagues would confirm that if you go from school to school and principal to principal, you will see that they are tearing out their hair out as they try to…

The Government needs to acknowledge and respect the vital, essential role of SNAs for children in the school system.

The Government also needs to commit to not to cut any of them. That is what is needed. That is what the Taoiseach needs to say.

I hope the Taoiseach will get to his feet, alleviate the anxiety of parents and SNAs and make it clear these cuts will not proceed.

I have given the Taoiseach the numbers there.

So is Fossa not losing four?

Johnstown is losing five.

How many should they lose?

Oh my God, you are so out of touch with what is happening.

The Taoiseach is out of touch with what is happening.