Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, not just for being here to take this matter but also for liaising with my office when he could not be here on a previous occasion when the issue was discussed. This arises out of a question I raised directly with the Taoiseach during Questions on Promised Legislation in regard to after-school care for children with additional needs. The norm for most families is to avail of childcare to facilitate not just the parents going to work, which it does, but also to facilitate the child to develop, socialise and do all the good stuff we want to see happening. I raised this issue following a query to my constituency office. It was only when that query was raised that a whole rake of other questions started to come in. It seems this is an issue for a lot of families.

The parents in question were sent to the HSE, which sent them to the special educational needs organiser, SENO. The SENO then sent them back to the HSE. Seeking clarity, I raised the issue with the Taoiseach. His response was:

The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, informs me that this [provision] is available in CHO 9 but perhaps not in all parts of the country. I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, to come back to the Deputy on the matter directly.

I responded that CHO 9 is my area and I am aware the provision is not available. I subsequently corresponded with the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and submitted the matter for discussion as a Topical Issue. It was given to the Department of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. The Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, has not come back to me as yet but I understand the matter is now with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. That is fine.

The Minister will be in receipt of a letter from constituents of mine. I want to be careful not to identify them because parents of children with additional needs have to go through enough, tell enough about their lives and put enough of their personal information into the public domain. However, I will read out a couple of lines from their correspondence that jumped out at me. They wrote: "When you are the parent of a child with additional needs, you find yourself only being able to access scraps and the bare minimum and having to be grateful for them." The parent in this instance quotes from the National Quality Guidelines for School Age Childcare Services as follows:

Equality involves a commitment to positive experiences for all children irrespective of their... disability, birth or other status. To achieve this, different groups may need additional supports.

Children will have the support of a special needs assistant, SNA, if they are in a mainstream school or special school. They will have the SNA support that is tied to the school. That care will be provided for more hours in a secondary school but will stop at a certain point for children in primary school. That is grand if the parents can get full-time wages for finishing work at 1 p.m. Most people cannot do so. They should not have to face a situation whereby one of them will either have to change to part-time work, if it is available, or give up work altogether. Neither is an option for most people.

The parent in this case says she cannot send her child to a typical summer camp outside of her crèche as there are no camps that cater for children with additional needs. She has been in contact with the children's disability network team, CDNT, the SENO and the HSE but she cannot get a straight answer. Surely information on the different types of supports should be readily available. School-age childcare is a necessity for many families and a positive support for many children. I want to emphasise this is not just an issue around childcare. It is also an issue around socialisation and development for children. As the Minister knows and appreciates, parents of children with additional needs have to fight for everything. They have to live in a world in which their children are excluded from a lot of activities. It is not acceptable that children, because they have additional needs, have a vastly different experience of school from that of all other children.

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