Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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411. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to address the lack of supports for single working parents of children with autism (details supplied) during school holidays, as they rely on term-time-only afterschool services, and need further assistance when schools and afterschool are closed for holidays; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14107/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Details of the 2025 Summer Programme were recently announced on Thursday, 13th February 2025. More than €60m in funding, secured in Budget 2025, is being made available for this year's Summer Programme allowing it to continue to run in line with how it has been implemented over the past three years. All of this funding will be utilised to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children.

All schools will have an opportunity to run a programme over the summer months for children with complex special educational needs and those at risk of educational disadvantage. These children can continue to be supported, nurtured and encouraged to engage in a fun and inclusive educational setting.

The main priority in 2025 continues to be that those children with the most complex special educational needs, especially in special schools, should have access to a school-based summer programme. Depending on the individual school and on their staffing resources, the school-based Summer Programme can run for 2 to 5 weeks.

This year, the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Education will partner together in a pilot project designed to combat holiday hunger. Schools who are eligible to avail of the School Meal Programme during school term will now be able to make meals available during their Summer Programme. This will help to alleviate the costs for schools associated with running a Summer Programme and for parents. It will also be in addition to the other supports and measures already in place.

Full details of the school-based Summer Programme have been issued to schools and are available on www.gov.ie/summerprogramme. It is open to schools to register their interest in running a school-based summer programme via an online registration portal. The closing date for registration by schools has been set for the 11th of April 2025.

Where a school-based programme is not being run or a place is unavailable, the Home-based Programme will be available for those children with complex special education needs. Under this provision, parents can engage a tutor or a Special Needs Assistant to provide 10 hours of tuition/care support each week for 4 weeks. Further details of the home-based programme will be released in May 2025.

To see if their child can avail of the Summer Programme, parents can contact their child's school.