The chief executive of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has apologised for the handling of a "botched" review of how special needs assistants are allocated which causes uproar among parents and educators. John Kearney told the Oireachtas committee on education: "The NCSE duly notes and apologises for any and all upset and uncertainty caused to children, parents, special needs assistance and schooling communities in recent weeks. In February, a review of how special needs assistants are allocated at schools across Ireland was paused after it caused concern and outrage among parents, teachers and SNAs. Speaking about how Special Educational Needs Organisers (Senos) working for her organisation assess schools' needs, Ms Walsh said: "We don't allocate individual SNAs to individual children. We allocate to a school, so there's always that capacity within a school to be able to move SNA posts around.

Source: Irish Examiner March 05, 2026 14:09 UTC