Ms Martina Mannion:

It has been a huge success. We had 13,000 children participate in 2019. That number increased to 50,000 in 2023. The number of schools participating reached 1,400 last year, which is up 12%. The registration portal for schools for the 2024 summer programme is closing tomorrow. We had 1,441 schools last year. I am pleased to say that 1,696 schools have registered already this year. There are a few new additional things which will help significantly. We have a special-school placement from the third week of May to the end of the programme whereby schools can take two graduate teachers and final year professional master of education, PME, students. That will bolster the special school capacity for the people running the summer programme. We hope those teachers and staff will get a feel for working in a special school environment and that the special schools will be able to retain them after the summer. We have a small but significant partnership between Munster Technological University and special schools in Kerry, whereby the special school staff will be supported by the university staff to develop programmes and we are trying to extend that.

The personal rates of pay Ms McNally mentioned have been instrumental in getting the number of schools up, as have the two additional roles. The organiser is the person who works on the summer programme before it happens and the manager is the person working on the summer programme, but not the teacher, who supports it while it is happening.