Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the clarification and for telling me that just one case has been brought to her attention. I hope there will be no more. It is a totally unacceptable practice.

I welcome all the progress that has been made in this programme. I welcome the increase in student numbers and the number of schools. I welcome the changes and the various appointments that have been made. I welcome all of that but we have to put it in context. This arose from a High Court or Supreme Court judgment back in 2001, 23 years ago. That case was taken in the nineties to say that we could not have children with special needs not getting attention during the summer and that it was detrimental to their welfare. That is the background to the summer provision. It was to deal with children with special needs and complex needs. What I am trying to get at here is that I welcome the analysis and the figures, but we have no context to those. We have approximately 8,000 children attending special schools. Less than 50% of the special schools provide their schools for the summer programme. I will stick within my time and stop there.

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