Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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111. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of education professionals who engaged with summer provision in 2022; if that matched the demand for places; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50030/22]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The 2022 Summer Programme is a very important scheme for pupils with complex special educational needs and those at greatest risk of educational disadvantage. This programme built on the first ever Inclusion Summer Programme which was introduced in 2021 and it means that all schools could offer a summer programme to pupils in primary and post-primary, whether they were mainstream or special schools.. A home-based summer programme was also available for students with complex special educational needs where a place on a school-based programme was not available to them.

While final figures are still being tallied by the Department, it is anticipated that over 1,000 schools ran a programme with approximately 45,000 children participating in a programme either in school or on the home-based programme in 2022. The vast majority of claims for staff who participated in the school-based programme have been paid. Over 9,000 staff participated in the school-based programme. The processing of claims for the home-based programme is ongoing. Payments will issue on a fortnightly basis. The first batch issued on 29 September. It will be a number of weeks before the total number of teachers and SNAs who participated on the home-based programme will be known but so far 3,328 teachers and 956 SNAs have been paid on the system to date who catered for over 6,000 pupils.

Over the last two years, schools have been given the flexibility to engage staff that are not currently employed in their schools, including those in the early-years sector, to run their summer programme, along with provision to recruit final year student teachers graduating in the summer. In 2022, this was further expanded to allow Route 5 undergraduate student teachers to participate. Since 2020, the home-based programme has been expanded to permit SNAs to support pupils.

The Department is very conscious that parents want this programme to be available in more schools in 2023 and, as part of the planning that has already begun for next year, it is a priority that children in special schools have access to a school-based programme. The on-going development of the Summer Programme is committed to ensuring that children with the most complex needs have access to a scheme. My Department is currently undertaking a review of the 2022 programme with a view to improving it for next year and with a committed focus on increasing the number of schools participating, particularly schools serving children with very complex needs.