Sinn Féin spokesperson on Education Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD has described the failure of the Minister for Education to bring teachers and SNA’s on board to deliver a return to special education on Thursday as ‘profound’.

Speaking tonight, Teachta Ó Laoghaire said:

“It appears tonight that, yet again, the government’s plans for schools – and crucially for special education – has collapsed. That is a profound failure of government, and the Minister for Education in particular.

“It is a failure with serious and profound consequences.

“The government’s entire approach to this has been characterised by chaos, miscommunication, a failure to properly engage and most of all – a failure to plan and to prepare.

“Twice in as many weeks a mess has been made of this. It is utterly unacceptable

“The basics have been gotten wrong. There were no contingency plans, yet there were announcements and self-congratulations ahead of actually getting agreement with workers. It is truly a mess

“Staff, parents, and children lose out here. They face uncertainty and are justifiably angry at the handling of this.

“In particular children with special educational needs – they are the cohort of students that missed out the most when schools closed last Spring and they will be the ones who will suffer most again, through no fault of their own.”