Youth and Sports Minister Dennis Lister has reassured parents of children with special needs that they will be able to attend summer camp at the start of the vacation.

But while the Minister moved quickly to stress that special needs places in the camps "are not in jeopardy'', Cabinet colleague and Education Minister Milton Scott was unable to confirm that there would be enough teachers to staff the camp.

Mr. Lister was responding to a story in The Royal Gazette last week which revealed that the programme could be scrapped because of a Government mix-up.

Although the Department of Education usually organises the programme for children with special needs, just two weeks ago it was decided that the Department of Youth and Sport should now take on responsibility for the event.

That department had not allocated any cash for the project, assuming that the Department of Education would be the organisers.

Mr. Scott then said the programme would be going ahead, but there had been problems recruiting teachers.

But a paraprofessional later told The Royal Gazette that Government had made no attempt to recruit teachers to cater for special needs children.

And a distraught parent said she had been passed "from pillar to post'' between Government ministries before being told the scheme had been scrapped this year.

A statement released by the Ministry of Youth and Sport last night said: "Mr.

Dennis Lister today moved to assure parents of children with special needs that there will be summer day camps for them this year as per usual.

"The Minister said that an administrative change, namely a change in the venue for the registration of children with special needs, is the reason for the misunderstanding.

"Government has instituted the change of registration venue to allow all the administration of summer day camps to be done by the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Parks and Recreation.

"However, the Ministry will still rely on the Ministry of Education's expertise to match children with special needs with appropriate paraprofessionals for the duration of each child's summer camp experience.'' When questioned about the development by The Royal Gazette Mr. Scott at first refused to answer calls and insisted that the Ministry of Youth and Sport should deal with all inquiries.

And when questioned about claims made by a civil servant and a paraprofessional that the programme had been scrapped he replied: "Would you rather believe a civil servant than a Minister? Would you rather believe a paraprofessional than a Minister?'' But he could give no firm guarantee that there will be enough staff to run the programme.

"Special needs children will be taken care of, but there may be difficulties recruiting staff because some special needs children have special needs,'' he said. "But every effort will be made to recruit them -- that's a commitment from the Government.'' Last night Shadow Social Services Minister Kim Young blamed Government for causing confusion over the issue.

"There appears to be conflicting statements and the two Ministers are making it very difficult for the parents of these children -- this is very confusing for the public,'' the Paget East MP said.