Oireachtas Access: 10th-12th March 2026

Catch Up: Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Disability (Amendment) Bill 2025 & Provision of Special Education and the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) Allocation Review

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The Oireachtas schedules are clear this week, but we have got a few bits for you to catch up on in the meantime.

Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Disability (Amendment) Bill 2025.

The Committee on Disability Matters held three sessions over two days last week on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Disability (Amendment) Bill 2025.

Session #1, held on the 3rd March, heard from representatives from Disabled Persons’ Organisations Disabled Women Ireland and AsIAm on the General Scheme of the Disability (Amendment) Bill 2025 and the Assessment of Need structure and process.

Find the opening statement by Disabled Women Ireland here in (PDF) format.
Find the opening statement by AsIAm here in PDF format.

Session #2, held on the same day, heard from representatives from Disability Federation Ireland, St. Gabriel’s Foundation and Enable Ireland on the same topic.

Find the opening statement by Disability Federation Ireland here in PDF format.
Find the opening statement by Enable Ireland here in PDF format.

Both sessions are available through the same recording link here - no ISL version available at this date.

Session #3 was held on the 4th March, with representatives from the Ombudsman for Children’s Office, The Psychological Society of Ireland and the Centre for Disability Law and Policy of the University of Galway.

Find the opening statement from the Centre for Disability Law and Policy of the University of Galway in PDF format.

Find the opening statement from The Psychological Society of Ireland in PDF format here.

Find the opening statement from the Ombudsman for Children’s Office in PDF format here.

Find the recording of Session #3 through this link - no ISL version available at this date.

Provision of Special Education and the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) Allocation Review

The Committee on Education and Youth, which shadows the Department of Education and Youth, also met last week on the Provision of Special Education and the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) Allocation Review.

The Committee heard from representatives from the Department of Education and Youth and National Council for Special Education.

Find the opening statement from the CEO of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) in PDF format here.

Find the opening statement from the Principal Officer of Special Education in the Department of Education and Youth in PDF format.

You can find the recording of this session here - no ISL version available at this date.

Bills for Discussion

And finally, some Bills that continued through the Oireachtas last week included:

Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2026
International Protection Bill 2026
Health Information Bill 2024

As always, we will have more news on consultations and advocacy in our newsletter this week - make sure you are signed up to receive it directly to your inbox!

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