Primary schools are being urged to give children water safety lessons before they break for the summer holidays.

An average of 11 people drown each month in Ireland, or 135 a year.

A 13-year-old boy drowned in the Dublin’s River Liffey at the weekend after getting into difficulty while swimming at Islandbridge.

Roger Sweeney, the Deputy CEO of Irish Water Safety, says attitudes need to change: “As we did when the seatbelts became mandatory in Ireland, I think it’s time to change the skills and attitudes and behaviours of everybody enjoying our waterways and we can do that by increasing the number of children that take Irish Water Safety’s school programme.