Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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89. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a breakdown, in relation to the summer programme, of the number of children in each of the primary inclusion scheme, post-primary inclusion scheme and special school scheme respectively in 2023 and expected in 2024, in tabular form. [25726/24]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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90. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of increasing the rate of payment for the primary inclusion scheme and the post-primary inclusion scheme from €30 to €45 per week. [25727/24]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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91. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of children who availed of the home-based summer programme in 2023 and expected to avail of it in 2024; and the number of children who were eligible for the programme in each of these years. [25728/24]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 89, 90 and 91 together.

Details of the 2024 Summer Programme were published on the 21^st of March 2024. Funding of €40m is available and, as in previous years, all of the funding is utilised to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children.

All schools have an opportunity to run a programme over the summer months for those children who need it the most so that 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.

The Online Registration portal for all schools closed on the 17^th of May 2024. More than 1,700 individual expressions of interest in running a Summer Programme were received from schools. Early indications do suggest that more children will be participating in the school-based schemes than in previous years. However, as there is likely to be some crossover of schools running one or more schemes (e.g., DEIS Primary schools), final counts will not be known until all Summer Programmes in schools have been concluded.

Based on 2023 participation rates in the Summer Programme, it is envisaged that the estimated cost of increasing the rate of capitation from €30 to €45 would amount to €540,345 per week. This includes the Primary School Scheme which can be ran for 2 to 4 weeks, the Post-Primary School Scheme which must be ran for 2 weeks and the DEIS Literacy & Numeracy Summer Camps which can be ran for 1 to 2 weeks. The capitation rate of €60 remains unchanged for Special Schools and reflects the unique circumstances of running a programme in those settings.

The Home-based programme is available for pupils with complex special educational needs in circumstances where their school is not running a Summer Programme or a place on a school-based programme is unavailable. In 2023, 12,722 children participated in the Home-based programme. It is anticipated that a similar number of children will participate again in 2024. Again, final counts will not be known until all Summer Programmes payment claims have been processed.

The following is a breakdown of the participation rates in the 2023 Summer Programme and the number of schools who have registered to run the programme in 2024: