{"id":278,"date":"2011-07-14T08:53:47","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T08:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/sinn-fein-td-joins-dail-protesters-seeking-reversal-of-sna-cuts\/"},"modified":"2011-07-14T08:53:47","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T08:53:47","slug":"sinn-fein-td-joins-dail-protesters-seeking-reversal-of-sna-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/sinn-fein-td-joins-dail-protesters-seeking-reversal-of-sna-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in TD joins D\u00e1il protesters seeking reversal of SNA cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ARngJ1lxCbE\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ARngJ1lxCbE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sinn F\u00e9in TD joins D\u00e1il protesters seeking reversal of SNA cuts<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 Speaking last night in the D\u00e1il in support of a motion opposing cuts to<br \/>\u00a0 Special Needs Assistants, Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Education Spokesperson Se\u00e1n Crowe<br \/>\u00a0 said the government must reverse the cuts that have impacted on children<br \/>\u00a0 with learning and behavioural difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 He continued: \u201cThe government must recognise that the loss of Special<br \/>\u00a0 Needs Assistants in schools across this State is having a devastating<br \/>\u00a0 impact on children who have special education and behavioural needs as<br \/>\u00a0 well as on their families, who are struggling to cope, and on<br \/>\u00a0 over-burdened teachers with responsibility for their learning.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u201cCutting SNAs is an unacceptable way of saving a relatively small amount<br \/>\u00a0 of money and it is an unethical policy. It is also simply not good<br \/>\u00a0 enough that the Minister justifies the cap on SNAs by blaming his<br \/>\u00a0 predecessors in government as he is in a position to honour Labour\u2019s<br \/>\u00a0 pre-election commitments to protect special education services.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u201cToday I will join people outside the D\u00e1il who are demanding that the<br \/>\u00a0 government reverses the cuts to SNAs. It is nothing short of perverse<br \/>\u00a0 that at a time when the SNAs are being capped, it was revealed just this<br \/>\u00a0 week that the final bill for the recent visits of the English Queen and<br \/>\u00a0 President Obama amounted to an eye watering \u20ac36 million, almost twice as<br \/>\u00a0 high as what was budgeted for!<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u201cSuch excessive spending cannot be justified no more than can the<br \/>\u00a0 spending of over \u20ac100,000 on taxis fares and \u20ac130,000 on fine art at the<br \/>\u00a0 Waterford Institute of Technology. The parents of a child with special<br \/>\u00a0 needs would be justified in believing the government\u2019s budget and<br \/>\u00a0 spending priorities are exceptionally perverse and beyond comprehension.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u201cIn the face of these figures it is high time that this government got<br \/>\u00a0 its priorities right and ensured that it is the right of all children,<br \/>\u00a0 regardless of their social and economic background, to receive a proper<br \/>\u00a0 education. This cannot happen if essential cuts to SNAs continue be a<br \/>\u00a0 central tenant of government policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u201cThere are also growing fears that sharing special needs teaching hours<br \/>\u00a0 amongst a rising number of pupils, combined with a reduction in support<br \/>\u00a0 in resource teaching, is having the greatest impact on some of the most<br \/>\u00a0 vulnerable sections of our community.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0 \u201cThe rights of children with special needs to obtain their educational<br \/>\u00a0 needs must be a priority for this government yet to date their track<br \/>\u00a0 record on this matter has been quite appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ARngJ1lxCbE Sinn F\u00e9in TD joins D\u00e1il protesters seeking reversal of SNA cuts \u00a0 Speaking last night in the D\u00e1il in support of a motion opposing cuts to\u00a0 Special Needs Assistants, Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Education Spokesperson Se\u00e1n Crowe\u00a0 said the government must reverse the cuts that have impacted on children\u00a0 with learning and behavioural difficulties. \u00a0 He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}