Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Parents of children with special needs face a constant battle with the State to get their children the education services to which they are entitled. As we speak, many parents are once again beginning their annual fight to secure appropriate school places for their children from September. This pressure is exacerbated every year as they also struggle to secure summer provision places for their children. A survey published today by Family Carers Ireland reveals that 72% of carers have never received respite. Many of these same families will also go without the support of July provision. The stress, the exhaustion, the sense of abandonment for these families is very real.

Some children like Jack McNiffe from Kildare have gone years without summer provision. Jack has Down's syndrome, a rare auto-inflammatory disease and severe intellectual disability. He is non-verbal, a wheelchair user and requires 24-hour nursing care. He needs to have a nurse on stand-by. Jack was in hospital last summer and was cocooning during Covid due to his vulnerability. This means that the last time Jack had July provision was in 2019. He is going to miss out again this summer due to a lack of resources. Jack is not alone. We have parents contacting us every day, stressed and their wits' end, because they cannot secure a summer place. They fear that their child's progress will be hampered, that they could become withdrawn, lonely and distressed due to a lack of routine. They have described the huge strain placed on the child, on themselves and on the entire family.

Summer provision is critical in the context of providing children with complex educational needs with the support they need to progress. It provides the socialisation, routine and stimulation that are so important to ensure that these children can move forward. Many children like Jack require round-the-clock care, and parents are exhausted. The respite that summer provision should provide is very important, and it is devastating when parents cannot access the programme.

The Government's approach is at the heart of the problem. Schools struggle to deliver summer programmes for many reasons, including that special needs assistants, SNAs, are not paid fairly and that the Government issues guidelines very late every year, which makes it difficult for schools to plan. The Government has decided to cut the capitation payment for summer provision from €45 to just €30 per week. This will completely undermine the quality and the type of activities that can be offered to children, placing incredible pressure on the capacity of schools to deliver what these children need and contributing to an alarming shortage of school-based programmes for so many children. Is fadhb bhliantúil í áiteanna soláthar samhraidh a fháil. Cruthaíonn sé seo strus mór do thuismitheoirí a bhfuil riachtanais speisialta oideachais á lorg ag a gcuid páistí. Caithfidh an Rialtas réitigh a thabhairt chun cinn.

Children with special educational needs and their parents need real solutions and urgent action to expand the delivery of school-based summer provision programmes. The first step must be to reverse the cut to the summer provision capitation payment. I ask the Taoiseach to do that today as a matter of urgency.

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