Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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45. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the level of funding and plans for this year’s Summer Programme in Cork; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23765/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Details of the 2024 Summer Programme were published on the 21^st March 2024. Funding of €40m has been secured again to ensure that a comprehensive summer programme will be available in 2024. This builds on the successful summer programmes of the last three years. As in previous years, all of the €40m funding is utilised to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children.

All schools, including those schools in Cork, have an opportunity to run a programme over the summer months for those children who need it the most. These children can continue to be supported, nurtured and encouraged to engage in a fun and inclusive educational setting.

The main priority again in 2024 is that those children with the most complex special educational needs, especially in special schools, should have access to a school-based summer programme.

Since 2019, the Summer Programme has gone from strength to strength. In 2023, approximately 1,400 schools and more than 50,000 children took part in the Summer Programme. This is compared to the more than 300 schools and 13,000 children who took part in 2019.

The Summer Programme is reliant on schools and their staff choosing to participate on a voluntary basis. To this end, the Department has engaged with management bodies, schools and parents with a view to encouraging more schools to participate in the 2024 programme.

A Home-based Summer Programme will also again be available for children with complex special educational needs where their school is not running a Summer Programme or a place on a school-based programme is not available to them.

All the supports and incentives introduced, both in 2024 and in previous years, have been developed and designed to increase participation by allowing all schools to provide the Summer Programme. These measures are aimed at maximising the number of children who can participate in a school-based programme with a specific focus on ensuring children with the most complex needs receive the targeted support.