Last night we had a debate on childcare. During the course of that I made the point that July and August can be stressful times for parents as they try to figure out a patchwork quilt of different types of care as school finishes and there are camps and things like that. The stress of that is multiplied by two, three and ten for parents of children with special educational needs. The Topical Issue I submitted is about the summer provision programme. While the summer provision scheme obviously cannot be precisely the same as school, it is meant to offer a certain amount of continuity for children, staff and families in terms of the support, care and education those children get during the course of the summer. Unfortunately, despite the fact that this is an annual debate, there still seem to be huge anomalies, discrepancies, things that are difficult to understand and shortfalls in time, hours and provision. I was prompted to raise this in the context of an issue in a particular school. I was contacted by a parent and a teacher about a school where two children who had visual impairment were not going to be allowed access the programme because of a lack of SNA support. Trying to get that addressed was something the school had been chasing over the course of two or three weeks, and it received no response from the Department. In the interim, I have learned since submitting this matter that some additional resources have been allocated, but the fundamental point in terms of structure is that this school found it difficult to get answers. Time will tell whether the provision is adequate for those particular children. It still speaks to a fundamental point with regard to the programme as a whole. I will give a number of examples. There seems to be a big issue with special schools in particular. Some parents have told me there was a delayed release of funding, which has led to some schools struggling to ensure staff are provided. There is a particular frustration with the reduced length of the day for special schools for 2026, continuing for the past number of years. The Department's position is that this is from stakeholder feedback. A lot of parents say that this really has not changed since Covid. The kind of feedback that might be talked about could go back that far. There is obviously a discrepancy with the special schools. For them, it is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., whereas mainstream schools with special classes or units attached to schools do full-time hours in many instances. Not every school does, but they are in a position to offer the full four weeks with full hours. The guidance for special schools seems to be that there is no scope for the provision of that. There is also an issue with the window, which was shorter this year than last year - only ten days, when previously it was two weeks. It was opened quite late this year, towards the end of June, whereas last year it was open in May. A lot of parents who are looking to avail of summer provision do not have the opportunity. They are being offered a home-based programme, but that is only for ten hours per week for four weeks compared to either 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the special schools or for the full hours in some of the mainstream schools with special classes attached. There are different anomalies affecting different categories of parents, leading to an awful lot of parents not getting the support they ought to get. It was very late when they found out what would be available.

Sentiment score: 0.04

Will the Minister of State take away a couple of points? While the issue I raised was resolved ultimately, that does appear to have been after the last minute, as it was after the provision had already begun on Monday. It was only today that I learned that additional resources were provided yesterday. It should not have come to that. It should not have been the case that two sets of parents were faced with a situation where children with visual impairments were potentially not going to be able to avail of the summer provision because of a lack of SNA supports. Parents of children with special educational needs constantly feel a number of things: first, that they have to fight for absolutely everything; and, second, that there is a constant cycle whereby every spring there is a debate on special classes and every summer there is a debate on summer provision. That is despite the fact that the planning for these should be improving all the time, yet for parents it seems as if the same debate repeats itself and there is not any advance. I want the Minister of State to take away in particular the point about special schools being able to offer full-time hours. Not every special class attached to a mainstream school offers full-time hours but the school has the option. However, it is not part of the guidance available to special schools, which operate between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Those children and their parents need the support the most, as the children struggle the most with the change in the pattern of their day. I want to briefly raise the matter of children with special educational needs. Gaelscoil Uí Riada serves the Bishopstown and Wilton areas in the south-west of Cork city. Its application for two additional classrooms for special classes under the additional school accommodation, ASA, scheme was rejected. Will the Minister of State push for that within the Department? The Department keeps talking about modular units rather than an extension but there is not the space for them. It is a tight, city-based site. It is crucial to ensure that the school can offer additional special education classes.

Sentiment score: 0.17