Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 22 May 2001

Vol. 536 No. 5

Written Answers. - Educational Welfare Service.

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods)

The Education (Welfare) Act provides for the establishment of a national educational welfare board and a nationwide educational welfare service with a view to ensuring that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives an adequate level of education. My Department has requested nominations to the board from the education partners and relevant Departments and these have been received. It is my intention to have the board in place very shortly. The number of educational welfare officers required for the implementation of the Act will be determined by the board as part of its preparations for the full implementation of the Act.

In answer to the Deputy's query regarding the specific arrangements for the area referred to in the question, it is my intention that the new educational welfare service will, ultimately, cover the entire country. The service will be implemented on a phased basis in line with a plan to be developed by the board. The priority in the initial stages will be on areas of disadvantage generally.

Two major initiatives, the eight to 15 years early school leaver initiative and the stay-in-school retention initiative were established in 1998 and 1999, respectively, and are designed to deal with problems of early school leaving. One of the 17 existing ESLI projects, which was established in the community school in the area the Deputy has mentioned in 1999, has been extended until August 2002.