Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I want to talk to the Taoiseach about this SNA fiasco. I will get straight to the point. This Government seems to think disability is almost exclusively physical. It is 2026 and that is akin to saying mental health is not a thing. I should not have to explain this but children being able to communicate, regulate and participate is just as important as their physical needs. My first question is this: does the Taoiseach recognise that? I think this is something he cares about so I will presume he does recognise it. Why does this policy on SNAs ignore that? Yesterday, thanks to public pressure from parents and school communities, the review of SNA allocations was paused. Where are we today? The schools that were told they are losing SNAs, like Belgooly National School in my constituency, have no idea if those cuts are still happening. Schools that were told they are being allocated additional SNAs do not know if these increases are going ahead.

Children, SNAs, parents and principals are all in limbo. All they know is that there will now be a review into the original review. Nobody knows how long this second review will take or what the criteria for it will be. The criteria are key. An SNA's work is not an optional extra. They do extraordinary and essential work, helping children with their medical needs and helping them through anxiety and through painful transitions and tough and difficult moments. Without SNAs, children would be excluded. Even with an increase in the overall number of SNAs, the reality is that we need more. Instead of doing what needs to be done to achieve that, and instead of improving pay and conditions, professionalising their role and including more secondary care needs in their contracts, the Government has reduced this essential support to numbers on a spreadsheet. It has completely missed the point.

When I spoke this morning to an SNA, Samantha O'Flanagan, she put it better than I could. She wants to know this:

When a child won’t come up the stairs because of anxiety, when they run out of the classroom because they are dysregulated and overwhelmed, when they sit in a corridor crying because they are so emotionally distressed, what is the teacher meant to do?!

What are the up to 27 other children meant to do?

This is the reality in schools.

Emotional regulation and sensory support is just as important as physical care needs.

Children need to feel safe in school, to be regulated in order to learn, and SNAs are the ones who facilitate that.

I will return to my original question: does the Taoiseach recognise that disability is not just physical? If so, why does the SNA policy ignore that? Will the Government scrap this policy and focus on what needs to be done?

With respect, I know the full needs of every child. They extend beyond the physical. It is a bit much of a question to ask but we will leave it at that. I am a parent as well. I was a teacher. My fundamental objective in politics is to realise the potential of every child in this country.

In terms of SNAs, the 2014 circular is clear on the sensory needs and the role of SNAs in relation to that. A workforce planning exercise is under way in consultation with all stakeholders as to the optimal role of SNAs. In terms of communication and so forth, in my view therapies are essential. We do not have an adequacy of provision in therapies in terms of communication for every child. That is why we are bringing in a school-based therapy service to have an optimal approach to enabling children to be in a position to communicate properly and effectively from early in their lives and to get help in that regard. That is why the language classes came in many years ago. Across the country we have specialist language classes that do very well in helping children with language difficulties early in life and reintegrating them into primary schools. We need more of that. Fundamentally, we need more therapists and multidisciplinary teams in our special schools and, ultimately, in our mainstream schools.

I committed to this at the outset of this Government. I made it an election red-line issue that we would have therapies in our schools. There was resistance in different quarters. In my view, the health-based approach that was there from 2013 onwards was not optimal and did not succeed in terms of progressing disability. There are ongoing challenges and issues around that. We said from the outset there would be therapies in our schools.

Special needs assistants have key roles in respect of facilitating the participation of children with intellectual, physical and sensory disability in our schools. It should and must be part of a multidisciplinary approach, ultimately. To me, that is the approach that ultimately will benefit children. I think taking therapists out of special schools in the last decade was a mistake. That is why we are correcting it now with a schools-based approach. I do not want to conflate therapies in total with the SNA issue, but SNA numbers have expanded. It is governed at the moment by the circular of 2014. There is a workforce plan for the SNA role. That is not completed in terms of clarity, direction and consistency within the entirety of the workforce. There has been a lot of progress in terms and conditions for special needs assistants over the last number of years and that will continue.

The Taoiseach said it is a "bit much" to ask that question and I have to say I agree with him. I do not think we should have to ask that question but the reality is that the policy - the implementation of this - does not represent his words here today at all. Over time and incrementally, it has happened that the allocation of SNAs is based almost exclusively on physical needs and not other needs. That is the reality. Speak to the SNAs, the teachers, the principals and the families. I did not want to have to ask the Taoiseach that question but I had to ask him because he needs to put his policy where his mouth is. He recognises that there is a problem with this policy because it has been paused. It would not be paused if he did not recognise that. The question that I am asking and, indeed, that Deputies have been asking him for the past 24 hours is this: what happens now? How long will this review take? Will the Taoiseach change the approach? Does he recognise that we need more SNAs? Will the focus be on that, rather than on looking at a spreadsheet and deciding who can be moved where? The Taoiseach knows how disruptive that is to a classroom. How long are children, families and schools going to be left in limbo?

We have increased the number of SNAs.

I said that.

You did not, actually.

I am asking-----

Deputy, the Taoiseach is responding.

Sorry. We have increased significantly the number of special needs assistants. I would welcome a proper engagement on this subject. The fallback position from Opposition all the time is "more, more, more, more". We should look at optimal deployment of all resources in our education system and at outcomes. There have to be reviews. Surely people are not suggesting we will never have reviews. There are limits-----

If you could answer the question, it would be helpful.

I am answering the question. The Deputy's attitude is that we can go to 26,000, 27,000 and 30,000 and it will be fine. That is not the full answer. In every area of policy, that is her answer - no analysis, no attempt at evaluation. Are we doing the right thing? Is this getting the optimal outcome for a given child? We need multidisciplinary approaches; that is my view. We need more SNAs. We are employing more SNAs. There will be up to 25,000. There will be 1,700 extra by September 2026. That is an increase.