Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Every child has the right to an education. That right needs to be universally applied regardless of any child's additional need for support. I will go back to the Minister of State's opening contribution to this debate. She said there was a 386% increase in the number of special classes and went on to say that "While the capitation rate in mainstream schools was raised to €45 in 2023, the €30 rate per week for 2024 is in line with the rate for the inclusion programme" and that the "rate for special schools remains at €60". Essentially, there are three separate lanes for the summer programme running at the same time. There is the DEIS programme, special schools and the mainstream.

I want to focus on the mainstream and what has happened there in recent years. I have printed out documents from the Minister of State's Department. This is from 2022 for a mainstream primary school. There is a non-pay grant of €30 per pupil per week. A second non-pay grant of €60 per pupil per week will be paid to all schools participating in the special class programme. If we fast-forward to 2023, we see a very significant change. What is new in 2023, again according to the Minister of State's Department, is that:

... there are no longer separate schemes for the Inclusion Programme and Special Classes. The Primary School Scheme replaces and integrates both these schemes into one ... It is still is open to schools to offer places to pupils enrolled in special classes ....

There is a 386% increase in the number of special classes, which is what the Minister of State said earlier. At that point, the €60 was gone and we are down to €45. In her statement the Minister of State said it went up to €45, but it did not. It went down to €45 for some of those participants, having previously been at €60. We then come to 2024. We are back to this primary school scheme, which amalgamated the two previous ones. We now have a non-pay grant of €30 per pupil. None of that has been reflected in what can only be described as the Minister of State's verbal gymnastics when it came to putting the figures on the record. She did not refer to these documents once, but that is what has happened to the summer programme over the past two years.

I would like her to continue to address the parents at home. If she cannot I will. I want them to hear very clearly. All that information is freely available on her Department's website. It is all there in black and white, yet neither she nor her colleague referred to those facts in the contributions they made to this debate - and we wonder why parents of children with additional needs have so little faith in this Government to be able to meet the needs of those children. It is something they live daily. The vast majority of pupils with additional educational needs are in mainstream. They are the ones affected most by the actions of this Government over the past two years, the ones the Minister of State failed to reference. If she is genuinely and truly interested in putting the summer programme where it needs to be, she needs to stop this. This needs to stop. The penny-pinching going on here needs to end.

I turned on a news app before I came in here to see the Minister for Finance talking about these extra billions of euro that are going to be available to the State's coffers. He should spend them here. The Government should put that money back where it needs to be and ensure our summer programme meets the needs of those children, who are some of the most vulnerable children in this State, this summer.

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