Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State very much for coming in today. I very much welcome the announcement yesterday from both her and the Minister, Deputy Foley, on the €40 million funding and the review of the programme.

Many children with whom we speak are excited about summer provision. It is a key part of their year. We have two sets of people, namely, the students and the teachers. We must resolve those two issues. I know that is what the Minister of State is committed to doing. Early payment is one of the issues that will hopefully resolve this issue around recruitment for the summer provision.

I agree with much of what Senator Carrigy said, however. The Minister of State can do so much but there is also an important part to be played by leadership within schools when it comes to summer provision. This is an essential part of education; it is not an add-on. It really gives people with special needs that continuity they so desperately need and want. That is really important.

Various groups appear before the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science with regard to special needs, in particular. The Minister of State has always been available to come into us as well. One thing that has stood out for me about special needs teachers is that they really want to be part of leadership within schools. When I was chair of a board of management, we had an SNA who was there as a representative from the school. Boards of management generally only have two representatives from the school. Oftentimes, that is the principal and another teacher or deputy principal. I was fortunate enough that it was a small school, so we had the principal and a special needs teacher. It was, however, really key in ensuring that voice of special needs assistants was heard within our schools. Given that we have this important Ministry now in this Government, I know that special needs assistants are seen as core to education. Indeed, one quarter, or 25%, of the education budget goes into special needs education. We have more special needs classes opening than ever before. However, it is also now time to ensure that the leadership within schools includes those who are right in the middle of the teaching of special needs education.

The other thing that was called for was that people would know a long time in advance that this summer provision was coming. This is October; we are one month into the school year and already schools are being given notice that this is happening next year. I was actually quite shocked to hear from Senator Carrigy about the number of schools that are actually providing it. I know that number is low because I get so many emails about it. It is a real difficulty in areas in which people only have one school and that school is not providing it. It is also difficult because of transport issues around some parts of rural areas to ensure people get to where they need to be.

We cannot say more than the Minister of State is now doing a review, she has addressed the issue of early payment and she has given advance notice. I am very hopeful that next summer, we will see that most children who really need it will have access to this very important provision.