Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I reassure the Deputy that guidance has been given to schools in relation to this programme, particularly for the supervision of final year students, which was a key component of our interactions with schools. One of the things we wanted to make sure of this year was to remove any impediments schools felt existed to their participation. Last year, 804 schools were able to apply to provide summer provision, comprising 124 special schools and 680 primary schools. This year, there are 4,000 schools, so every single school is in a position to apply. A lot of applications are coming in. The closing date is Friday and there is a big uptick in post this week, which shows the positive engagement that we also had on Tuesday with stakeholders, unions, management bodies, parents and advocacy groups. As far as the Department is concerned, all those barriers have been removed for schools to participate in the summer programme.

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