Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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348. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of increasing the free-of-charge summer programme for students with special education needs to provide a place for every child with special educational needs across the State. [31572/25]

Michael Moynihan (Cork North-West, Fianna Fail)
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Details of the 2025 Summer Programme were published on the 13th of February 2024. For this year’s programme, funding of €62 million was secured in Budget 2025 to ensure its continuance. Between 2021 to 2024, €40 million in funding had been allocated each year to the Summer Programme. The level of funding this year represents a 55% increase on the funding previously provided and all of this funding will be utilised to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children.

All schools have an opportunity to run a programme 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 2025 is ensuring 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 2024, over 1,600 schools and more than 59,000 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. In 2025, over 1,800 schools have registered to run more than 2,000 individual summer programme schemes. It is anticipated that the number of children taking part in these schools will be even higher again this year, continuing the positive upward trend in participation seen in previous years.

The Summer Programme is reliant on schools and their staff choosing to participate on a voluntary basis. To encourage schools to run a Summer Programme, a range of supports and measures have been introduced. For special schools, these include a bespoke pilot programme, a national coordinator, a shorter school day and additional grant funding. For all schools, supports include key leadership roles, higher personal rate of pay for staff, enhanced capitation, a transport grant and earlier staff payments.

This year, the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Education have partnered 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 be able to make meals available during this year's 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.

All the supports and incentives introduced, both in 2025 and in previous years, have been developed and designed to increase participation by allowing all schools (Primary, Special and Post Primary) 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.

Despite these measures and incentives, it is a matter for schools to decide if they wish to run a school-based programme. 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.