Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. I will zone in on the summer provision or, as it was called, July provision. I know there is another aspect to the motion. Indeed, one has always to give a context when speaking on disability. The report today, The State of Caring survey, is a damning indictment of the Government, notwithstanding the figures the Minister of State has given and notwithstanding her understanding of the frustration and the anger. We talk in terms of the millions provided. The reality on the ground, as the Minister of State well knows, is very difficult.

Today, we have a report telling us that 2,000 carers were surveyed and 72% said they never receive respite. Not alone are parents struggling to get basic July provision and have consistency with that, they are also struggling for respite services. The report also states that 69% are finding it difficult to make ends meet. Seventy-four per cent said the people whom they care for do not get adequate support.

Some 23% of them missed at least one mortgage payment. I hope we get a chance to discuss this, but that is the background.

The July provision is déjà vuyear after year. I am looking at the context of that. It was a High Court action in the nineties that forced July provision in the first place. In 2001, 23 years ago, we brought in July provision or whatever it was called at that time. Since then, it has struggled from year to year with absolutely no certainty. I welcome the changes that have been brought in. I welcome that there is a pilot project, that a committee has been set up and that parents are finally involved, but they have been involved on the basis of pain and suffering. They have been forced to come to TDs, to send us emails and to talk to us, to get the most basic requirements. Even then, it is extremely difficult. As the Minister of State knows, we get representations. I made a representation for someone who was legally entitled to an assessment. This individual got that assessment but by the time the answer came back, the person was unaware they had got the assessment and the family were then onto the next thing of trying to get respite. It is a constant struggle from start to finish.

In 2021, 20 years after it was introduced, it should have been remembered that when it was introduced the O'Donoghue judgment stated that "primary education ... if it is to meet their special needs, requires a new approach". This is a case where judgment was delivered in 1993. On continuity of education, it further stated:

The lengthy holiday breaks which take place in the life of the ordinary primary school appear likely to cause serious loss of ground which may never be recovered, in the case of children with severe or profound handicap. Accordingly, to deal adequately with their needs appears to require that the teaching process should, so far as practicable, be continuous throughout the entire year.

Over the past 20 years, it has not been continuous. In 2021, there was Covid. Following Covid, the programme was expanded to include post-primary children. The difficulty is that expansion excluded children with profound and moderate needs. I understand a pilot project is now under way. The Minister of State might give us some details on that.

The actual figures are also damning. We are told there is home-based provision but year after year the reports fail to give us any analysis of the home-based programme, how it is being picked up, and how many hours are available, which I understand are much less. The inspectorate's reports, which are very interesting, do not provide a breakdown of the length of time the programme is provided in the schools that provide it. They might have two weeks, one week or three weeks. Figures from 2021 show, according to the inspectorate, that 625 primary schools and 99 post-primary schools took part in the programme. We have opposite figures coming from the Government's press releases on the total number of children who participate. This figure of 50,000 children taking part is at odds with the inspectorate's reports. That was in a previous speech given by the Minister of State or her colleague and in press releases. Only 43.4% of special schools, or 59 out of 136, provided a summer programme. In Galway, of six special schools, only five provided a summer programme. Two of those schools provided four weeks, while three provided approximately two weeks. The schools that offer the programme cannot offer it to all students and so on.

I am running out of time. In a rich country where we are able to put aside billions of euro, at what stage will we recognise and finally rectify the most basic service of a summer programme following a court case in 1993, which stated it was absolutely essential? How come, in 2024, we are still struggling on an ad hocbasis to provide the service that is required?

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