Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

I highlight a deeply concerning gap in supports for children with disabilities, particularly around the availability of summer services and structured activities during school holidays. I am not speaking about July provision or anything within schools. In recent years, Enable Ireland and other service providers secured places within private summer camps to enable children with special and additional needs to join and have a chance to attend. These are not just social outings; they are crucial developmental and support-based spaces for children and their families.

This year, I was contacted by two families in Kilmallock, County Limerick, and inquired on their behalf. Unfortunately, there are no places because Enable Ireland does not have sufficient staffing numbers to send staff to these private summer camps and, as a result, the safeguards necessary for these children to attend would not be in place. These two families are distraught. Not only would they have had to travel all the way to UL in Limerick city to access these summer camps, as there are no services in the county, they now do not even have that option. These children's option to have the same access as their peers and experience the same summer as their peers is being taken away. It is not an affordability issue anymore. Some families may not be able to afford to send their children to summer camp but, for these families, regardless how much money they have, they do not have the option for their children to have the same experience as their peers during the summer. Some of these children are of secondary school age and might not suit all summer camps. As we know, just because children with additional needs and disabilities turn 13, that does not mean their disability or need is gone.They still have the same needs and disabilities and they would still like to enjoy the different activities that the mainstream students have on offer. They have an offer of multiple camps on multiple weeks throughout the summer, whereas these children would have had that one week in a private camp which now, due to lack of staffing through Enable Ireland and other service providers, will not be an option. I ask the Minister of State to look at services in the county, not just city based, and outside of July provision and the mainstream services that go hand-in-hand with the school. Is there an initiative we are looking at for these children to have what their peers are getting in order for them to feel like they are getting the same experiences?