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

We have all of that data. There was an 18% increase in participation from last year. As was mentioned, there were 1,000 schools involved in the programme, up from 945 last year. That is one in four schools, but it is still not enough. I was talking on the radio earlier and a school principal from County Carlow phoned in. He said that schools should not be shamed into providing the summer programme. It is certainly not my intention to shame any school. Nor should the Department be shaming any school, and it does not. It is actually about trying to encourage them. It is about trying to address all of the feedback that we are getting from them as to why they are not providing it. The main reason, from what we all can glean, is the fact that understandably, the teachers are exhausted by the end of they year, especially after Covid. Senator Malcolm Byrne asked about that and about the risk of regression. The Department inspectorate's report mentioned that the regression will continue for a period of time. The teachers and the SNAs are exhausted too. That is understandable. There was also fear of a lack of oversight by bringing in external staff. Now that the programme has been announced earlier, it allows schools time not just to recruit staff early, but to allow the staff into the school so that they can assimilate themselves, get used to the environment and get to know the children better. We hope that will alleviate those fears. There were also some concerns around pay and not being paid on time. We have dealt with that. There is an online portal now. Some 9,000 staff have already been paid from the school-based programme. The staff from the home-based programme will be paid by the end of this week. There is a lot of good stuff being done. We have appointed an overseer role and introduced preparation hours. We are trying to take away the administrative burden for the schools. It is not a question of telling schools that we do not want to leave them with any excuse not to do it; it is one of asking them why would they not do it when we are giving them all of these supports. That is what we are really trying to do. The teachers tell me themselves that they see the benefits when the children come back in September. They have had that continuity of education from the time they left. It has increased their well-being and promoted their positivity in the summer programme. I thank the Senators for their contributions today. I will bring them forward with me, and I will take them to the Minister.