SUMMER SCHEMES FOR CHILDREN PLAN ‘FULL OF CONFUSION’
A SERIES of summer programmes for children with intellectual disabilities has been ‘categorised by confusion’ and excludes a large cohort of youngsters, a charity has said.
Mark O’Connor, a community engagement manager at Inclusion Ireland, said parents and schools have been confused over the Department of Education’s changing message on how the scheme will run.
Enda Egan, chief executive of the charity, which represents children with intellectual disabilities, said the scheme must be opened to all youngsters including those at secondary level. Mr Egan said many children with special needs have not had access to education since schools were closed in March.
‘The Department of Education and Skills (DES) has initiated a summer program which is expanded to include additional children in 2020,’ he told the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19.
‘However, the scheme continues to exclude cohorts of children with disabilities and has been characterised by poor planning, leaving schools and families frustrated and in the dark.
‘One trade union has stated the lack of guidance makes the scheme unsafe for staff and pupils. Parents are also reporting a lack of transport as a major barrier to attending the summer programme, and there are significant fears for September.
‘The National Council for Special Education has previously expressed concern about the scheme being assistance and intervention from Government, many operators will simply not survive.’ The measures being demanded include the retention of the Wage Subsidy Scheme until next year, or until turnover returns to 75%; clarification of the twometre social distancing rule; and the readjustment of the Government’s credit guarantee scheme to allow businesses to apply for the refinancing of loans. open to challenge on equal status grounds – that has not changed. The scheme must be opened to all children with intellectual disabilities, including those in second level as they also experience regression.’
Mr O’Connor said that all children with Down syndrome and those in special classes in secondary schools cannot participate in the summer scheme. ‘To say the summer programme has been categorised by confusion would be an understatement,’ he added.
A lack of transport is also a major barrier in children attending summer programmes, the committee heard. Lorraine Dempsey, chairwoman of Inclusion Ireland, said: ‘Because of the disjointed nature of schools closing down, the department said they would support families making their own transport arrangements by a grant.
‘Special classes are very dispersed across the country – we only have about 130 special schools. It’s untenable a parent would be making a three-hour round trip twice a day for their child to have four hours of school-based school provision.’
Around 200 schools have opted to participate in the scheme this year.
Meanwhile, trade union Fórsa has said it is satisfied that the Department of Education has taken the steps necessary to minimise health risks to students and staff participating in summer programmes.
Fórsa’s head of education Andy Pike said the hard-won measures were a ‘genuine attempt to address the safety issues posed by Covid-19’, and added that they recognise that social distancing may not always be possible for SNAs, who will be provided with face visors and other appropriate PPE.
The CTTC is also calling for a financial support mechanism based on last year’s turnover.
Mr Healy-Rae said many bus companies are struggling in his constituency of Kerry, which is a hotspot for tourists.
He told the Irish Daily Mail such businesses should be given financial aid ‘because they won’t be able to carry on’. ‘There are tour coach companies here in Kerry, big companies, who used to cater for tourists who came from America and from all over the world, and they’re all parked costing millions of euros,’ he said. ‘I understand that they’re in a very bad way.’
The CTTC report also found that regional operators have taken the worst hit, claiming they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, with their main clientele – rural families and tourists – reduced significantly.
Mr Halpenny warned that many routes will likely be unviable – which will hit rural Ireland the hardest. ‘Sustaining services in the face of the foregoing will prove dreadfully difficult, as most routes will be completely unviable which will result in severe disruption to passengers,’ he said.
‘This begs the questions: who will service areas State operators will not venture into? Who will spend large budgets advertising Ireland as a destination to international visitors and help deliver a product that lends itself to delivering 2.2million tourists per year?’
Mr Halpenny added that the sector has a long road ahead following the crisis. ‘It is clear that the business environment for bus and coach operators will be extremely challenging over the next 18 months with the sector having to deal with reduced capacity due to social distancing, limited international travel as a consequence of quarantining rules and depleted consumer confidence,’ he said. ‘Our members stand ready to help tourism rebuild, run adequate scheduled services, and satisfy the demand for private bus hire but without State support many of them will simply not be around.’
A spokesman for the Department of Education and Skills said: ‘School transport is a significant operation managed by Bus Éireann on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills. The purpose of the Department’s School Transport Scheme is, having regard to available resources, to support the transport to and from school of children who reside remote from their nearest school. With regard to the reopening of schools for the 2020/21 academic year, the Department is currently engaging intensively with Bus Éireann, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the National Transport Authority on the logistical considerations that arise from public health advice in planning for the reopening of schools.’
‘Schools and families frustrated’
‘Extremely challenging’