DUNDALK’S FREE NEWSPAPER DkIT formalise partnership agreement with Queen’s University Page 2
Castletown Belles co-founder receives volunteer award Page 12
Tributes paid to the late Ciaran Bond Page 14
Wednesday, 4th March, 2026. Vol. 19, Issue 9 • 9A, Crowe Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth Tel: 042 932 0888 | Email: editorial@dundalkleader.com; advertising@dundalkleader.com
“SNA’s are not a luxury” By Paul Byrne PROTESTS took place across Ireland including Market Square in Dundalk at 5pm last Wednesday in defence of SNAs. AROUND 200 people gathered in front of the Courthouse to voice their opposition to Government plans to review the provision of Special Needs Assistants (SNAs). For over a week there was anger and worry amongst parents and schoolteachers after an estimated 180 schools across the country were told last month that their SNA allocations would be reduced this coming September. Education Minister Hildegarde Naughton put a pause on those plans just before last week’s protests but demonstrators have called for certainty for the future, rather than a pause. Eileen, a local teacher and parent of child with additional needs speaking said “ My son and many of my pupils
have a variety of intellectual and or physical disabilities. But the greatest disabling factor in their lives has been the failure of this government to value our children as citizens of this country. A government so detached from the trauma they have caused to families and schools that they thought any review of SNAs in our schools was warranted in the first place. If the government were serious about inclusive education, as a bare minimum provision, there would be an SNA in every classroom in the country.” James Renaghan People Before Profit rep said “We need a fundamentally different approach to our education system, one that champions inclusion instead of exclusion. The government laments over children falling through the cracks of the education system, well they aren’t cracks they are gaping holes at the stage and they aren’t falling Continued on Page 2 SNAs from Blackrock at the protest in Market Square, Dundalk last Wednesday.
PROTESTERS CALL FOR CERTAINTY ON FUTURE OF SNA’S