Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the comments of Senators Lombard and Ahearn regarding a debate on schools, in particular, special schools. Yesterday, we held a public session of the Joint Committee on Autism. I thank the Leader for the support that she gave me while we were pushing to get the committee put in place. It is giving the opportunity to parents, in particular, and families to come in and talk about the challenges they have and put forward recommendations. Something that has come out, in particular, from the last number of meetings, was that 14% of children of over 8,000 children who are in the special schools in the country got a school-based summer programme in the summer of 2022. That left more than 6,500 children. The committee passed a resolution yesterday and we will lay a report on the summer programme before both Houses in the middle of November. The resolution states:

That the Joint Committee on Autism

—notes the evidence of parents of autistic children and other stakeholders about difficulties with the Summer Programme

and while not having met all the key stakeholders, given the urgency of the current situation, calls on the Minister for Education to:

—ensure that all autistic children will have access to the Summer Programme in 2023;

—ensure that all Special Schools will provide the Summer Programme in 2023;

—provide sufficient resources to schools in order that they may offer a comprehensive provision of the Summer Programme in 2023;

—liaise with the various stakeholders to ensure that increased numbers of schools participate in the Summer Programme, bringing the resources of Schools together where needed, thereby ensuring that a programme is available in every large town in the country;

—mitigate any constraints to the provision of the Summer Programme including staffing issues such as delays in payment to teachers and SNAs (Special Needs Assistants), resolve any pay anomalies, and to broaden the potential workforce e.g. [employing student] OTs (Occupational Therapists), SLTs (Speech and Language Therapists), early childcare workers, and include suitable student placements;

—mitigate any difficulties with Garda vetting to allow staff to move from one school to another school easily.

That is coming from a joint committee of all parties putting out our view. A report will come before both Houses in the next number of weeks. We want to see a situation where, in 2023, at a minimum every special school has a school-based summer programme.

The Government has put in place €40 million for the programme. The funding is there. The principals and the boards of management know that the support will be there. They need to start organising a programme for summer 2023 now.