Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not diminishing the progress that is being made but to appreciate it fully we need to realise the Government is under a legal obligation to provide summer provision. Within that, how do we assess the progress? It has come as a result of pressure from the parents and the hardship of parents. I have received representations related to parents seeking residential care simply because their children have regressed as they cannot access summer programmes. On top of that, we do not have a breakdown of the percentage of children with special needs who are actually attending the summer programme. We do not have a breakdown. Do they attend for one, two, three or four weeks? There is no minutiae, which is very important so that we can improve the scheme and make it suitable for those who most need it. I understand that some schools use their premises to earn money through summer camps and so on, but do not put an emphasis on special needs.

I am not here to give out about schools. I am here to highlight the legal obligation on the Government to provide summer provision for those who need it most. I would not like to stand here again in the next term looking at the progress in terms of figures without an overall context and a breakdown.

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