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PARENTS, SCHOOL TEACHERS and other activists will mass at the gates of Leinster House this afternoon in protest at special needs cuts in education.
The campaigners are hoping to force the government to row back on cuts to the number of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) available in classrooms. The demonstration, organised by the Alliance Against Cuts in Education, will begin at 4pm.
Parents of special needs children argue that the cuts – which come as part of a raft of savings measures introduced by the government – will affect education for all schoolchildren, as without proper support, children with special needs will take up more of teachers’ time and attention.
Writing on TheJournal.ie this morning, Lorraine Dempsey of the Special Needs Parents Association has hit out at the services available to children with special needs. “The struggle that these families have, in what claims to be a First World country, is nothing less than sinful,” she writes. “These children are like the poor cousins who get thrown the scraps of the health service, and don’t fit neatly into any box on a form created by public or civil servants”
Speaking last week, protest organiser Tomás Ó Dúlaing said children’s needs had been dealt a “hammer blow” by the cutbacks and he anticipated a “substantial turnout” at the protest.
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I hope the people of Ireland turn out in their tens of thousands. It’s easy to target the most vulnerable of society for cuts whilst the privileged maintain their standards.
How can they do this when the government is overloading the pockets of top civil servants with lump sums and pensions.civil (servants) this we the tax payers should be called servants.
Best of luck. Hope there is a large turn out and the government reconsider this. Would be quite happy to see that 2% levy on my insurance going to fund this area rather then funding some gamblers mess.
hopefully the first of many !!! its about time people stood up ….
I would like to point out that I was there and it was full of Communists quite literally.
have your say