Parents of children with special needs face a constant battle with the State to get their children the education services to which they are entitled. As we speak, many parents are once again beginning their annual fight to secure appropriate school places for their children from September. This pressure is exacerbated every year as they also struggle to secure summer provision places for their children. A survey published today by Family Carers Ireland reveals that 72% of carers have never received respite. Many of these same families will also go without the support of July provision. The stress, the exhaustion, the sense of abandonment for these families is very real.

Some children like Jack McNiffe from Kildare have gone years without summer provision. Jack has Down's syndrome, a rare auto-inflammatory disease and severe intellectual disability. He is non-verbal, a wheelchair user and requires 24-hour nursing care. He needs to have a nurse on stand-by. Jack was in hospital last summer and was cocooning during Covid due to his vulnerability. This means that the last time Jack had July provision was in 2019. He is going to miss out again this summer due to a lack of resources. Jack is not alone. We have parents contacting us every day, stressed and at their wits' end, because they cannot secure a summer place. They fear that their child's progress will be hampered, that they could become withdrawn, lonely and distressed due to a lack of routine. They have described the huge strain placed on the child, on themselves and on the entire family.

Summer provision is critical in the context of providing children with complex educational needs with the support they need to progress. It provides the socialisation, routine and stimulation that are so important to ensure that these children can move forward. Many children like Jack require round-the-clock care, and parents are exhausted. The respite that summer provision should provide is very important, and it is devastating when parents cannot access the programme.

The Government's approach is at the heart of the problem. Schools struggle to deliver summer programmes for many reasons, including that special needs assistants, SNAs, are not paid fairly and that the Government issues guidelines very late every year, which makes it difficult for schools to plan. The Government has decided to cut the capitation payment for summer provision from €45 to just €30 per week. This will completely undermine the quality and the type of activities that can be offered to children, placing incredible pressure on the capacity of schools to deliver what these children need and contributing to an alarming shortage of school-based programmes for so many children. Is fadhb bhliantúil í áiteanna soláthar samhraidh a fháil. Cruthaíonn sé seo strus mór do thuismitheoirí a bhfuil riachtanais speisialta oideachais á lorg ag a gcuid páistí. Caithfidh an Rialtas réitigh a thabhairt chun cinn.

Children with special educational needs and their parents need real solutions and urgent action to expand the delivery of school-based summer provision programmes. The first step must be to reverse the cut to the summer provision capitation payment. I ask the Taoiseach to do that today as a matter of urgency.

I thank Deputy McDonald for raising this important issue. It is important because parents of children with special educational needs do rely on the summer provision. It provides excellent support to children during the summer period. The programme also provides excellent support to families. I assure parents who are watching in today that I intend to prioritise special educational needs every day that I am Taoiseach. This was why, on becoming Taoiseach, I established a new Cabinet sub-committee on disability, which I chair. It is why I also elevated the Cabinet voice for special educational needs by appointing the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, to sit at the Cabinet table. It is why we have provided €12 million more in recent weeks for assessments of need. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has special responsibility for this area.

Let me be very clear about this matter. The Deputy should not come into this House and create anxiety for parents. There has been no cut to the summer school programme. The budget this year is the same as that for last year. What there has been, however, is the deployment of that budget based on the feedback we have heard from those who use the programmes. What we have heard from them, and the Deputy is correct about this point, is that access to the programme was the biggest challenge. I am sure the Deputy will welcome the fact that we have seen more schools apply this year than applied last year. The number in that regard rose to 1,700 from 1,400. Again, parents have enough going on without being made into political footballs. Those watching these proceedings need to know that already this year we have seen 300 more schools than last year put up their hands and say that they want to provide the summer school programme. Let us not add to the anxiety that these parents already face.

What we are doing - we also did this last year - is ensuring that we continue to pay a higher personal rate of pay to SNAs and teachers working on the school-based scheme. The capitation rate for the special needs schools attended by those children with the most complex needs is €60, not €30. The €30 rate of capitation is being supplemented by means of a range of new measures, which the Deputy may or may not be aware of, that were not in place last year. For example, we now have a dedicated national co-ordinator for the programme. We have provided additional grant funding to special schools. We have reduced the length of the school day. From September, we will provide that every special needs school in Ireland will have an administrative deputy principal. There will be 100 new post-primary teaching posts across our special schools and a new nursing pilot programme to support children is being put in place. New programmes have also been introduced to support the transition of children with special educational needs after school.

The Deputy should rest assured that the budget for the summer school programme overall remains the same. The number of schools looking to take part is growing and is up 300 on last year. I can tell the Deputy that I know a great deal about the summer school programme. I know how important it is to families. My family benefited from this programme. It is an incredible programme. It is one in respect of which we will continue to provide every support we possibly can. I do not need the Deputy to "Mary-Lou-splain" this issue to me. The Government supports the programme and will continue to do so. We should not be making a political football out of this issue.

I described Jack's position and situation to the Taoiseach. His mother wrote to The Irish Times in May outlining the position, which has not changed since then. He cannot access summer provision. Far from making a political football of anything, this mother and family are appealing for change and for urgent action in order that Jack can access the support and service he needs in the course of the summer. The capitation grant has been cut from €45 to €30. Schools, SNAs and everybody who wishes to provide this wonderful service to Jack, and to all the other Jacks, are reporting to us directly the type of stress and strain I have described to the Taoiseach. I have made a proposal in terms of reversing that cut. More specifically, in respect of Jack, did the Taoiseach respond? His mum has made his case very publicly because she is desperate.

I thank the Deputy.

I invite the Taoiseach to respond directly to her and, by extension, to Jack.

I thank the Deputy very much.

What I invite the Deputy to do is to not mislead people.

What the Deputy has conveniently suggested is that the change in the capitation rate has resulted in a reduction in service, when, actually, more schools are providing it this year than last year. The number in that regard is up to 1,700 from 1,400. Those are additional schools - we can all do the maths. The reality of the situation is that for Jack and for every other child, this Government is ensuring that more schools will be taking part in summer provision this year than last year. This Government is also investing in more supports, specifically for special schools-----

Is it a cut or not a cut?

-----because those are the schools attended by the children with the most complex needs. They rely on the provision of the service.

There has been a cut in the grant.

The Deputy should not come in here with her one setting of performative outrage. Let us actually engage on the substance of the issue, namely the fact that more schools are availing of the programme and that a Minister of State with responsibility for special educational needs is, for the first time ever, sitting at the Cabinet table.

It is the second one.

We also have a Cabinet sub-committee to break down silos and end bureaucracy. That is what people want. They do not just want us to define the problems; they want us to come up with solutions.

Such arrogance.

I would have thought Deputy McDonald had learnt that this weekend.

Deputies should please not interrupt. I call Deputy Cairns.

I thought Deputy McDonald would be trying humility today.

Hubris and arrogance.

Can we stop the heckling please? Can we hear Deputy Holly Cairns, without interruption?