Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That reflects the current situation. On the issue of the loss of speech, many parents fought an inch-by-inch battle to make progress. The children and their parents were so proud of the gains that were made. It is very difficult for them to see those gains being lost.

On summer provision and the way in which it is laid out, July or other summer provision is typically four weeks long. The Government document states that it can be a minimum of two weeks, but if one gets two weeks in the school-based programme, one is not entitled to supplement that with two weeks in a home-based programme. Are the witnesses concerned that children will not have the depth of engagement that was available in previous years? In addition, as I understand it, if there are two or three children in a family, the same number of hours applies to them. There is a maximum number of hours under the home-based programme for all of the children in the family. Those children may see a much reduced benefit than they may have experienced in previous years.