Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Not at all, you are quite all right, a Chathaoirligh. We will not worry about that. I welcome the Minister of State to the House and pay tribute to all the work she has been doing in this area throughout her time in office. She and her officials are to be complimented. Like many others, I welcome the €40 million for the 2023 summer programme. As has been said, it is a priority for 2023 that more children in special schools have access to school-based programmes. As others also have mentioned, in excess of 50,000 pupils have participated in the summer programme. Up to 1,000 schools have been running a programme, and we hope this will increase year on year. As has been stated, the review of the programme is very important and the Department is engaging with stakeholders and others and looking at other countries to take everything into account, from administration to workforce expansion to training requirements to vital components with the schools. Like Senator Carrigy and others, I would like to see more schools taking up these programmes. That is very important and I believe it will happen. The review will sort out a lot of issues and concerns that may exist.

I remember highlighting an issue in the House more than a year ago that I contacted one national school that was getting some support for special needs and I was clearly told they did not want it, which I thought was shocking at the time, and that the school did not want any publicity about it. The support was needed in that locality. That is the sort of thing that should not be happening. I know at the time we were all shocked but it is to be hoped that type of attitude will go and the review will allow teachers and others to look at possible areas of concern or difficulty and iron those out. As others have said, this type of programme is so important for students and to give everybody a chance.

The continuation of the enhanced summer provision programme for 2022 was a response measure due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on education. Prior to last year's expansion, summer programmes were only available to specialist schools and pupils in special classes in primary and DEIS schools. It is important we look at the key strands of the programme, which are numeracy and literacy camps in DEIS primary schools; the school based summer programme in primary schools with special classes and in special schools; home-based provisions for children with complex needs where no school-based programme is available; and the opportunity for all primary DEIS and non-DEIS schools to provide a two week summer programme for mainstream pupils with complex needs and those at greater risk of educational disadvantage.

There are people who cannot adapt to education as it is. That was probably not recognised for a long time, but with all of this happening now, we recognise it now. It is very important, whatever road we go down, that everybody gets the advantage of education. Education is very advantageous, but sometimes some people cannot adapt to the systems that are in place. The inclusion programme for primary and post-primary schools remains for 2023, and DEIS numeracy and literacy camps will continue to be available at all DEIS primary schools. Regardless of whether we are politicians, parents and teachers, we have a responsibility for the young people coming up and we must give them every opportunity we can. With what the Minister of State is doing here and the money coming again this year to prepare for 2023, we will have more people coming on stream and more young people availing of different opportunities of education. That is what we need to do because if we do not do that for the future generations, we will not have served our country well.