I thank the Deputy very much for raising the summer programme. I will set out the details of the scheme in the first instance and then I will respond to the specific points raised. The summer programme is hugely valued across the Government and by families and school communities. It is a vital and targeted intervention for the education of children with special educational needs and those affected by educational disadvantage. It is delivered during the summer months to ensure that children with additional needs or who are disadvantaged have continuity. There is an emphasis on different things in each of the schools. Since 2021, the Department of Education and Youth's inspectorate has evaluated the summer programme and the findings consistently highlight the positive impact on many children and young people who have taken part. Parents, staff and children themselves report improvement in confidence, attitude and readiness to return to school in September. The continued emphasis on the summer programme is to mitigate against the impact of learning loss on those children while schools are closed. An increase in the educational needs prevalence rate, particularly in autism, and the presentation of children with more complex needs has meant that the summer programme is now more important than ever. The details of the summer programme were communicated to stakeholders, including the schools, in May of this year. While acknowledging that the details of the programme are technically announced earlier, the Department has continually kept in touch with the educational stakeholders querying when the programme might be announced. This ensured that the schools understood that it would be forthcoming and that they could start their preparation. As a result, and as the Deputy said, the online portal was open for ten days. Following feedback from schools in particular in relation to that, the portal was opened again to allow more schools to apply and get on board with the summer programme. We have more school-based schemes this year than in 2025. That is hugely welcome and means that more primary, post-primary and special schools are engaging in the summer programme. The applications for home-based programmes also significantly increased on last year. A number of schools, including one cited by the Deputy, went back to the Department looking for extra staffing and resources. I understand that a lot of those requests have been met at this stage in terms of giving the resources. In response to the points the Deputy makes, I understand the value of the summer programme. It is a hugely valued piece. It is vital that this valued resource be targeted at children with additional needs and those who are in disadvantage. While we have expanded the numbers quite considerably in recent years, we must ensure that we are targeting those who are most in need. I agree that we need to have the programme opened earlier and for a longer period. We had engagement between the Department and the stakeholders right through the year to say that the programme would be forthcoming but we need to make sure that there is a timeline for the schools because school communities are working extremely hard, in particular when it comes to the year end. Many school communities refer to it as "mad May". I take that point, which was made very clearly. If it is okay with the Deputy, I might come back to a number of the points he raised about special schools and so forth in the closing remarks.

Sentiment score: 0.25

I will take the points back in relation to the Gaelscoil. Some 1,800 schools and 71,000 children are participating in the scheme this year. Going back five years, there were 545 schools with 23,000 children. We have seen a 210% increase in participation. That gives a sense of the Government's commitment to the scheme. There are issues in regard to the special classes, schools in disadvantaged areas and special schools. The teams that work in special schools are superhuman beings because they work with the most vulnerable children, who sometimes have a very high dependency. They work extremely hard. I have had lengthy engagements with the special school community in recent weeks. We met the principals of all the schools who spoke about the challenges they had within their schools and communities. We will reflect on those points. As well as that, we want to make sure that the summer programme is a hugely important and embedded piece in special education and disadvantaged education now and into the future. We must be open to an evaluation of it and to how we are going to roll it out over the coming years to make sure that we are targeting the resources to the people who need them most. There are a number of points ongoing in that regard. While we engaged with the school communities and the stakeholders on the scheme, which we said would be open – there was no question but that it would be running this year – we need to make sure that we start earlier. Schools and school communities are working extremely hard right up to the year end. We need to reflect very carefully on that. I will give due reflection to the piece about the hours. A number of parents contacted me about that as well.

Sentiment score: 0.19

I thank Deputy McGrath for his question. I visited the school in Shanbally and saw the condition of it. I saw the excellent work being done by the school community - the teachers, the SNAs and everybody involved - and the commitment those people have to education. Both schools are co-education primary schools catering for boys and girls from junior to sixth class. Both schools have agreed to amalgamate, with a new school building to be constructed. The new school is expected to be located on a six-acre site that is privately owned. If I understand it correctly, this will be transferred to the council and then to the diocesan trust. This is a very important element and I will certainly relay the comments of Deputy McGrath back to the planning and building unit. A lot of the time, technical transfers are slow and cumbersome. When the transfer is made to the diocesan trust, we can make the decisions; we will have the site and we can move on to the next level. Both schools are in separate buildings and Deputy McGrath understands all of this quite well. What we need to do today is make sure that we have the pieces together to move it on. I saw the condition of the school in Shanbally. Something needs to be done in the Department. We have project managers and others in place for this project. From what I have heard from Deputy McGrath today, the transfer of the site is progressing through various stages. If there is further documentation or information that Deputy McGrath can bring to the table, I would appreciate it in terms of the timeline, as we could then put it on the table and say that the site was moving forward. We could then move to the next stage. With the best will in the world, there are a number of stages to go through, including planning and design. I know that Deputy McGrath will work with the local authority to ensure it passes through this stage. The local authority is very open to it and it understands it. The site has been earmarked. Without going through all of the detail, the brief is for 16 classrooms, as Deputy McGrath is well aware. This is about the amalgamation of both schools. Deputy McGrath indicated that there were about 200 pupils in one school and 60 in the other. This is very important for education, not alone now, but in future. If I could get sight of the transfer documents, I could then take them to the planning and building unit and we could ensure that a speedy response is given as fast as possible. We often talk about delays and legal issues but we have to try to cut through this. I have seen for myself the situation and I will certainly do what we can in the Department to move the project on.

Sentiment score: 0.21

I accept that. The Department is very committed to this. It has carried out a survey and the reports are very clear that this project must go ahead. There were delays over 15 years. The frustration in relation to a project like this is sometimes about it taking so much time. The point is, though, that we need to have sight of the exact legal situation because to progress the project to the tender documents and planning stages, we would have to be 100% certain. I would appreciate if I could get the document the Deputy read from, because I would like to try to get that in and to try to start moving. This is a fundamental aspect. I am referring to the site, the land and the history with other sites and so forth. We have to have that information as the underpinning that will allow us to move forward. If we go to planning, tender and other stages, we must make sure that we have ownership of the site. This is the fundamental aspect to moving the project to the next stage. There is a lot of work ready to go. The specification in terms of what is being designed there - the 16 classrooms and all of that - exists, but we need to have certainty about the site. I will take that document from the Deputy and any other supporting documentation he has. I will raise this issue and push it as hard as I can with the planning and building unit in the Department.

Sentiment score: 0.24

I thank the Deputy very much for the question. He mentioned a number of schools, and I definitely will go back over them. The Deputy's question, though, was on the numbers of schools in County Cork at stage 2A. The Department has a strong track record of delivering the school building programme, with over €6.9 billion invested in the last six years. This has delivered approximately 1,400 completed school building projects and over 4,000 smaller improvement projects. Over €796 million in capital funding has been invested in County Cork schools since 2020. In this period, a total of 168 schools in County Cork have been upgraded either through the provision of a new school building, a large-scale extension or the provision of modular accommodation. There are also currently 18 school projects in County Cork under construction. In late 2025, 35 schools were approved to undergo works as part of the climate action summer works scheme. In addition, since 2020, a total of 375 special classes have been sanctioned in Cork, of which 69 were sanctioned for September 2026. Under the national development plan, NDP, sectoral investment plan for education and youth, €5 billion is allocated to project roll-out to modernise and expand school infrastructure. A first tranche of 105 school building projects has been published to proceed to construction or tender in the 2026-27 period. These projects were already at tender or advanced detailed design stage 2B, thereby prioritising urgent capacity pressures and special education needs. This list includes 12 projects in County Cork, which represents just over 10% of the projects within the first tranche. Prioritised projects continue to be progressed through earlier stages of the design pipeline, with a focus on special schools; schools fully in interim accommodation with an urgent requirement for permanent accommodation; projects delivering significant special education capacity; additional accommodation required to cater for demographic growth in an area; and projects dealing with the most significant condition issues. As part of the Department-led prioritisation process that is under way for 2026 and 2027, consultation with school patrons began this month. A further tranche of priority projects is targeted for publication in 2027, informed by departmental analysis, engagement with the patrons and schools, funding parameters and, where relevant, the Department’s energy and condition inventory of the school estate, and this is due for completion by year end. Projects will need to be at an appropriate stage of readiness to be considered. In particular, projects already at stage 2A are well positioned for inclusion in the next tranche. There are currently 47 projects progressing through stage 2A of the architectural planning process in County Cork, reflecting solid momentum within the county’s school building pipeline. All projects continue to undergo detailed technical and cost assessment in line with Government infrastructure guidelines, with progression managed carefully across the wider capital programme. Departmental officials have recently intensified engagement with schools whose stage 2A reports have been under examination for some time, ensuring that each project is fully considered within overall prioritisation and programme management. I must say that there is huge engagement within the Department. I take the points the Deputy made in relation to the schools he mentioned and the prefabs. I take that issue in relation to prefabs very seriously because I see this right across the country. The Deputy mentioned a number of schools and I will follow up in regard to them. There is, though, solid investment in the city and county of Cork.

Sentiment score: 0.26

The only way we can give a commitment is by allocating sufficient funding within the Department. There has been a huge amount of continued investment in the school estate. There are literally billions of euro being spent across the country.

Sentiment score: 0.23

To be fair now, the question I was asked to respond to was in relation to investment in County Cork. There has been considerable investment right across the education system, and the Department of education has full sight of it. I acknowledge the frustration of schools that urgently need to progress to the next stage, but there has been serious engagement over recent weeks and months on how we are going to prioritise and make sure our investment in 2027 addresses the most critical points, such as the condition of buildings. We have also prioritised ensuring special education is put at the centre of capital expenditure across the education system. We are building capacity for special education at both primary and post-primary levels, and indeed in special schools. It is not true to say the Department is not spending money. There is a huge investment commitment in the national development plan. That is cold comfort for the communities the Deputy mentioned, one of which has been waiting for four years and another for seven. We should be targeting our resources to ensure that the condition of buildings does not deteriorate to such an extent that we have to do massive jobs on them. We should be investing earlier. Under the national development plan, we have committed serious money for the coming years, and we will be working with the schools. The Deputy mentioned a number of schools. I certainly will reflect on those and on the special schools. We have 20 of them open.

Sentiment score: 0.28