Special Educational Needs
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-17
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I thank the Deputy for the question. Like the Deputy, we recognise the importance of the summer programme as a vital piece in the education system. It is vital for children at primary and post-primary school. It is specifically designed for children with complex educational needs or those at risk of educational disadvantage. While it is delivered during the summer months, it is an educational programme and it is important that it is viewed as educational rather than as recreation in summer camps.
Since 2021, the Department of Education and Youth’s inspectorate has evaluated the programme annually. The findings consistently highlight the programme’s positive impact on the many children and young people who have taken part, with parents, staff and the children themselves reporting improvements in confidence, attitude and readiness to return to school in September. The original intention and continued emphasis of the summer programme is to mitigate the impact of learning loss on those children while schools are closed. An increase in special educational needs prevalence rates, particularly of autism, and the presentation of children with more complex needs, has meant that the summer programme is more important than ever.
Details of the summer programme were communicated to schools and stakeholders in early May. While it is acknowledged that the details of the programme are typically announced earlier, the Department has continually kept in touch with stakeholders who are querying when the summer programme might be announced. This ensured that schools understood it would be forthcoming and that they should start their preparations. As a result, the online application portals for both the school-based and the home-based programmes were opened from 6 May to 15 May. Both the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and I were aware of the deadline, and the application portals were reopened again from 2 to 5 June. Details of this reopening were announced in May.
The summer programme has been well established for several years, so even though there was a shorter window for applications, schools were prepared in advance. The Department subsequently received more applications for the school-based scheme this year than in 2025, with increases across primary, post-primary and special schools. In addition, the number of home-based applications has significantly increased on last year. The Department has been engaging with schools on an individual basis in relation to the running of their summer programme. Schools have now received their sanction letters with their staffing allocation. This allocation is based on the number of children who are taking part in accordance with the published terms and conditions of the programme.
In instances where schools believe they require additional supports, they can engage, and many are engaging, with the Department to outline the unique circumstances that require additional resources. I know the Department has been working with schools on an individual basis to ensure they can meet the needs of all the children taking part. Equally, it is acknowledged that there are some children with complex special educational needs whose school is not running a school-based programme or that a place on the school-based programme is not available. In this instance, these children can avail of the home-based provision.
The Department is working hard to ensure it is communicating with families as a matter of urgency. As the Deputy rightly pointed out, we are in the second half of June, and we need to get certainty to all communities. Many schools have been liaising with us in the past week or ten days in particular, and the Department has been engaging with them. Where a need is demonstrated, additional staffing is being made available. This will continue to work until the summer programme is up and running. We are very serious about making sure that the summer programme works this year and into the future.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-17