The level of support provided by the summer programme and its recognised benefits are very clear. It is recognised by school communities, parents and children themselves. There is increasing demand for the programme and, in recent years, an increased number of places have been provided. However, very real problems have been identified this year. Something different is happening in the administration of the scheme this year. In some cases, this means that children who were intended to benefit from the programme now will not. I have my suspicions about what is going on here. We all hear about the budgetary challenges in the Department. I believe they are at play here. We raised the issue of the very narrow application window, which the Department revisited, and that was welcome. I am hearing this from school communities and parents across the length the breadth of Ireland. A thread running through all of the complaints is that an entirely different approach is being taken now by the Department regarding SNA allocation. I have specific examples. In County Offaly, a school does tremendous work in special education and has an above-circular allocation in recognition of the complex needs in the school. It has nine SNAs but has been told it will have six for the summer programme. In Trim, a school with a tremendous track record in special education has 18 SNAs but has been told it has 12 for the summer programme. This means that children with additional and complex needs will be locked out of the scheme. There is another case in a DEIS school in County Cavan. It wants to roll out a literacy and numeracy camp but will have to exclude children with additional needs because of the lack of SNA allocation. This is one very important issue that I want addressed by the Minister of State. The other is the home-based programme. There is an absolute delay in sanctioning this to the extent that children, particularly secondary school children but also some in primary, might not get the opportunity at all. We know that in previous years the sanction happened way earlier. We are now running towards the end of June, and this has not been sanctioned. Schools that applied earlier in the year were told that it would be late May or early June before they would get the sanction letters but they are now told it will be the end of June. In some cases, tutors, teachers and SNAs are only available in the month of June. Their own children are at primary school and they are working in secondary schools, so they have the flexibility in the month of June that they do not have in July and August. These children are going to miss out on the summer programme as a result of these delays. What is going on? Can the Minister of State urgently address those deficiencies?

Sentiment score: 0.04

I would be interested to know the numbers. I recognise they have been increasing year on year. My understanding from replies to parliamentary question that I have received from the Department is that the budget has increased but it has not increased in the past two years and has been static. I know there were 1,800 schools and 71,000 children last year. How many schools and children are there this year? Will the Minister of State indicate whether more schools will participate this year and whether more children will be accommodated? I know many schools are engaging in the appeals process. I implore the Minister of State to ensure timely responses. I am dealing with a number of schools that have appealed. They engaged in good faith and outlined their particular circumstances but it is more than ten working days later and they have had no response from the Department. That has to change. When will the sanction letters for the home-based programme be issued to give people a clear indication that they can go about making arrangements?

Sentiment score: 0.19