In the first weeks of February, letters landed at schools across the country from the National Council for Special Education. 194 schools were informed that their Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) — staff who provide support to children with disabilities — would be reduced and reallocated.
It wasn’t long before local TDs were flooded with emails demanding answers. What would this mean for SNAs’ jobs? How were children with disabilities expected to continue in education without their vital support?
Questions rapidly turned to anger directed squarely at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. These are the same parties that just a few months ago handed out hundreds of millions in support and tax cuts for big businesses and landlords. Now they wanted to implement thinly-veiled austerity by attacking some of the most vulnerable in our society — children with disabilities. It doesn’t get much more brazen than that.
The overwhelming pushback meant that in a matter of days the Dáil was up in arms. The government was forced to beat a hasty retreat and pause the “review”. They called off reallocations until the 2027–28 academic year and in the meantime found an extra €19 million to hire new SNAs.
This whole episode starkly exposed the weakness of the government, and points the way forward for the struggle against its austerity agenda.
SNAs under attack
Why was this “review” initiated to begin with? The story goes that there had not been a review of SNA allocations since before Covid and so there are “imbalances” in their distribution across schools. But what is the reality on the ground?
There are 25,000 SNAs across the country. However, around 240,000 students require their assistance, with 30,500 of them having complex needs. To give one example, at the 25 February SNA protest in Dublin, one student with epilepsy explained to us that because of his seizures he requires constant supervision and that he “100 percent cannot go to school without an SNA”. When on average ten such children depend on one SNA it means massive workloads for all SNAs.
Added to this, because schools are heavily understaffed, SNAs often end up with extra responsibilities, including teaching or being tasked with duties such as “cleaning fish tanks, gardening and washing cars”. The truth is, they are already stretched to the limit and beyond in virtually every school. To claim “reallocation” is the solution is like saying rearranging the deck chairs could have saved the Titanic!
The stark reality is that all schools need more staff and more funding. Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have starved the education system of resources. And still they have the cheek to talk of “imbalances”! No — the real motives behind the government actions were spelled out clearly in the International Monetary Fund’s recent recommendations for Ireland. The same “fund” that called for the harshest austerity measures just over a decade ago, now is recommending the government to:
“Broaden the tax base [read: replace taxes on the rich with taxes on the poor], reduce tax expenditures [read: slash government spending], and raise the efficiency of public spending [through means such as ‘reallocating’ SNAs!].”
This is just what the government is trying to do. While showering money on multinationals to convince them to stay in Ireland despite the tariffs, they are looking to make savings by attacking workers and youth.
Indeed it is not just children with disabilities; their slashing of energy credits this year has led to a 10 percent increase of households in arrears with their bills. Or take social housing tenants, who face rent increases of up to 50 percent starting from April. Or university students, who have been billed with an extra €500 in tuition fees.
Like a reverse Robin Hood, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are robbing from the poor to give to the rich!
How to fight back
But while the ruling class needs the government to implement austerity, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael find themselves in a difficult position — stuck between the hammer of economic instability and the anvil of class anger.
They received a record low combined vote at the latest elections, and have only gone further down in the polls since. Half of people believe the government is making things worse and 64 per cent want them to spend the budget surplus instead of cutting back. A frontal austerity attack could inflict a terminal blow to their dwindling support. This is the reason why they tried to find a way around it, implementing “reviews”, talking of “efficiencies”, “imbalances” and so on — rather than the need to cut spending. It is a sign of weakness from a government fearful of taking the steps the ruling class needs.
But the problem remains. Regardless of how unpopular these cuts are, in the long term Irish capitalism has no choice. Without tax windfalls, Ireland would be facing an estimated €15 billion of public deficit. Sooner or later the knives must come out — there can be no other solution under capitalism. What we have witnessed in the last few weeks is a harbinger of things to come. Further cuts will add to the building frustration of workers and youth. Given the lack of political alternatives, increasingly they will find their only recourse in taking their frustrations to the streets.
As an SNA put it to The Irish Times:
“I think there is a belief in the Government that this will die down now there’s an announcement made and there’s money being given… SNAs are going to come out and they will join together to fight this. This will not be let die.”
This is absolutely correct. The government is in a weak position and has feigned a retreat. Organised, the working class could deliver a knock-out blow to remove the coalition from power and put a stop to their attacks. But simply kicking out Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will not solve the crisis of Irish capitalism — the whole system has to go!
