Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Those involved in the home-based programme, which is the alternative, do not need Teaching Council numbers or to be qualified SNAs; they just need to be Garda vetted and over 18. That is the alternative for parents if they can get somebody because we do not have the school-based programme. That is the source of the frustration among committee members. There are tens of thousands of children who are not getting into the programme because the school-based programme is a very limited, particularly in special schools. There are 8,000 children in special schools and over 80% of them have no programme at all.

We as a committee want to prioritise it for the summer of 2023. We have a summer-based programme throughout the country that every child who needs it gets, but that needs qualified teachers to make themselves available or we need to change the legislation to allow either people working in the early childhood care and education, ECCE, system or people who have levels 6, 7 or 8 in education to work in this scheme. Children and their families, particularly where the children have a higher need, need that programme. That gap of eight weeks and longer for families is not acceptable. The committee would like the Teaching Council to highlight that. The council said we need to promote this to more teachers for them to make themselves available. I am not criticising in any way but the children need it. Otherwise, they will regress and then it will be a more difficult September and October. We need more specialised training in special education.

Ms Fox mentioned teacher supply groups. We have a teacher supply issue for the summer provision and all here accept the massive need. I mentioned at our previous meeting that some schools have made a decision already that they will not be doing summer provision next year. Thousands of families have already been told 12 months out that they will have no summer provision next year. It is unacceptable we allow that happen. Will the Teaching Council promote this to teachers to make themselves available? Could we get the number of teachers who are registered and are perhaps retired who would be available to work? Could we contact them to see what number would be available to work? We need to start this work now to make sure we have this summer provision next year.