INTO President demands urgent special education supports at ICTU Biennial Conference

2nd July 2025

INTO President Anne Horan is leading the union’s 33-strong delegation to the biennial conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast this week, where she has today called for substantial educational supports and care supports for students with additional needs North and South and their schools. Vice-President Brendan Horan, members of the CEC, INTO officials and our representatives on ICTU sub-committees are included in the delegation.

General Secretary John Boyle and Deputy General Secretary Deirdre O’Connor, who have been re-elected to the Executive Council of ICTU for the next two years, will be heavily involved in conference events and, alongside Northern Secretary Mark McTaggart, a member of ICTU’s Northern Ireland Committee, and Assistant Northern Secretary Marie O’Shea they will also address conference motions.

Education unions North and South, who have been working closely together within the North-South Education Union Forum, will meet at a fringe event hosted by UTU, NAHT and the NASUWT.

The Forum has recently applied to Roinn an Taoisigh’s Shared Island Initiative for funding to support professional development programmes for teachers who work in special education settings.

Resolution of INTO’s motion on Special Education at BDC 2025:

Conference

  1. Commends the huge efforts made by teachers and other education staff on the island of Ireland to include and support all children in the education system,
  2. Acknowledges that this work is being done in the context of an increasing level of diagnosis of need,
  3. Denounces the absence of fully staffed and resourced health and education systems and the resultant failure to provide appropriate therapeutic, counselling, psychological and teaching supports for children with additional needs,
  4. Calls on the governments in both jurisdictions to:
    1. Increase funding to reduce waiting lists and improve access to children’s mental health services;
    2. Implement early intervention programmes to identify and support pupils with additional needs from early years through to the end of tertiary education;
    3. Provide multidisciplinary assessments in pre-school settings to support early intervention;
    4. Establish and implement frameworks for educational transitions, ensuring continuity of care and learning;
    5. Ensure all supports and resources allocated in early years settings transition with children into primary education;
    6. Develop centralised pupil databases to streamline the updating of pupil information and resource allocation, ensuring clear communication with schools and parents before implementation;
    7. Deliver prompt, effective individualised counselling and therapeutic supports in both mainstream and special school settings and increase the availability of nursing care staff and multi-disciplinary professionals in special school settings;
    8. Organise ongoing, accessible and fully funded professional development for all teachers to enable them to fully support children with special education needs;
    9. Promote stronger engagement with parents by support services to align expectations with the resources schools can provide; and
    10. Employ sufficient teachers and health professionals to guarantee that all children who require additional teaching and care supports have timely and adequate access to them.

Speaking on the adoption of the resolution, INTO President, Anne Horan said:

Teachers across Ireland are going above and beyond to include every child, but they’re being let down by underfunded and understaffed systems. We need urgent investment to slash waiting lists, deliver early intervention, and guarantee the therapeutic, psychological, and teaching supports our children deserve. The governments North and South must act now to ensure every child with additional needs gets the care and education they need to thrive.

Responding to the INTO resolution on special education, Owen Reidy, General Secretary of the ICTU said:

Ensuring every child, North and South, has the support they need to thrive in education is not only a matter of equality but of basic decency. The clear, detailed proposals brought forward by INTO reflect the reality faced by thousands of families and teachers every day. Congress stands firmly behind this call for urgent, meaningful investment in special education supports.

Media Centre