The Special Olympics World Summer Games, which take place in Ireland in 2003, will be the largest sporting event in the world that year.
It will be also the first time the event has been held outside the US, the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Sport and Recreation was told.
Special Olympics Ireland, the organiser, is seeking £24 million in funding and up to 30,000 volunteers as hosts for the games, Ms Mary Davis, chief operating officer of the games, said.
The games would be for everyone in Ireland and would be "a long-term source of national pride". Outlining plans for the event, which will be held in the Dublin area, Ms Davis said there are 19 sports in the games with 7,000 athletes participating from 160 countries, along with 2,000 volunteer coaches and 28,000 family and supporters.
As part of the preparations, a school enrichment programme will be held in every school in the Republic from September 2001, and by the time the games start every school will be aware of Special Olympics.
Venues include the RDS, the National Basketball Arena, Phoenix Park, UCD, Morton Stadium and Riverview Racquet Club.
The committee, chaired by Ms Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Lab, Kerry South) was told there were 4,500 schools in Ireland and if each school was asked to raise between £500 and £1,000 over two years it would be a major source of funding.
The Olympic torch will be lit in Greece, as for the other Olympics, and will cross Europe to Belfast where RUC and Garda runners will travel around the country to the opening ceremony in Croke Park on June 20th.
There will be a torch handover to a special athlete who will light the flame for the games. Ms Davis told Mr Sean Ryan (Lab, Dublin North) that 52 languages would be catered for with an interpreter for each team.
Special Olympics Ireland's national director, Mr Pat Costello, said they had 12,000 members. "We have only reached one-third of the 37,000 people out there with a learning disability." The challenge was huge to reach out to the others, he added, and the organisation hoped to increase its membership from 12,000 to 14,000 over the next two years.
Mr Costello pointed out that the movement, originally founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968, started in Ireland 10 years later and operated in 32 counties, involving 265 clubs and schools.
The former secretary-general of the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Paddy Teehan, and Mr Donagh Morgan will appear before the Oireachtas Tourism, Sport and Recreation Committee on September 12th. They will be representing Campus and Stadium Ireland Ltd, the company set up to develop the national stadium. The Minister, Dr McDaid, will appear on the same day.
The committee has been querying the feasibility of the stadium and is concerned about the proposed Olympic swimming pool and if it will be ready in time for the 2003 Special Olympics World Games.
