Leona Clarke, a home-economics and biology teacher at a school in Lucan, west Dublin, said she would like to see pathways funded and opened up to allow people to get into the profession as well as making it easier for someone to change careers into teaching.
Ms Clarke welcomed the incapacitated child tax credit increasing by €300 from a personal point of view as her eldest son, Michael, is autistic and severely intellectually disabled.
She also welcomed the increase to the home support hours and the means testing for the Carer’s Allowance. However, she said that as they can’t get people to do any home support hours, the increase in itself is “irrelevant”.
The Government is extending the free schoolbooks initiative to all transition year and senior cycle pupils from next September.
The Budget also includes a substantial increase in funding for the school transport scheme. The free hot school meals programme will also be extended to all 3,000-plus primary schools from next year.
Ms Clarke said that “anything that eradicates child poverty in school is very welcome”.
Budget 2025 also provided for 768 additional special education teachers and 1,600 more special needs assistants.
While welcoming the cost-of-living supports as part of the Budget, Ms Clarke said she would have liked to have seen children who are without a school place prioritised.
“I would have loved for someone to come out as part of the Budget and mention school places for all. We have so many kids that are sitting at home with no school places,” she said.
“There was nothing in the Budget for them. There needs to be strong leadership there. For huge change we need something radical, and it didn’t come,” she said.
Ms Clarke said money is just being thrown at problems and there is no real foundational underlying change in the practices where the problems lie.
“If you were a mother, like I was last year, of a child sitting at home with no school place, there is nothing in there to help me,” she said, adding that no child should be left without a school place.
Ms Clarke said there is no incentive for anybody to take up a job in special education, such as allowances.
“Teachers are the most important resource in the room. When there are enough of us, the rest doesn’t really matter. Education is about teachers and having the right environment and having the right people in the right jobs,” she added.
“There is no incentive for people to train or to encourage them into these fundamental services. It is the same with gardaí and nurses.
“There is a huge focus on the money and the economy but our fundamental public services are not being looked after.”
