Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 20 May 2003

Vol. 567 No. 1

Written Answers. - Education Welfare Service.

Seán Haughey

Question:

256 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will report on the implementation of the education welfare service; if his attention has been drawn to the concerns expressed by groups working with Travellers in relation to a decline in attendance at school by Travellers since the existing service provided by the gardaí ceased; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13774/03]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey)

The Education (Welfare) Act 2000, which is now fully commenced, established the National Educational Welfare Board as the single national agency with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework for promoting school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving.

To discharge its responsibilities, the board will develop a nation-wide service that is accessible to schools, parents-guardians and others who are concerned with welfare of young people. For this purpose, educational welfare officers, EWOs, will be appointed and deployed throughout the country to provide a welfare-focused service to support regular school attendance and discharge the board's functions locally.

The board appointed an interim chief executive officer in August 2002 and directors of corporate services and educational services have recently taken up their posts.

Some 37 former school attendance officers who were employed by local authorities under the previous legislation were transferred to the board on 5 July 2002 in accordance with section 40 of the Act. These staff are currently providing a service in the cities of Dublin, Cork and Waterford. Some 25 of these have recently accepted the terms and conditions of employment of EWO and will henceforth be carrying out the full range of EWO duties and providing a year round service rather than the school-term based service they were providing as former school attendance officers.

Proposals for the recruitment of an additional cohort of education welfare officers have been received from the board and officials of my Department had discussions with the executive of the board recently in relation to these proposals. Arising from these discussions, the executive wrote to my Department clarifying certain costs associated with their proposals. It is not possible to specify the number of new EWOs who will be put in place this year until my Department has had an opportunity to consider these proposals and costs in a multi-annual framework.

I have allocated a budget of €5.4 million to the board for the current year and it is my intention that the board's proposals will be taken forward in the context of these resources and budgetary allocations in future years.

My Department is not aware that there has been a decline in attendance at school by Travel lers. The position is that 40 teachers have been assigned to the Traveller visiting teacher service. These teachers are overseen by a national education officer for Travellers who is responsible for promoting and overseeing the education service to travellers on a national basis. The service provides a very comprehensive range of supports to assist Traveller families which include liaising with local agencies on behalf of Travellers, providing backup to the resource teachers for Traveller education in schools, co-operating with school authorities in relation to issues that may arise and ensuring that Traveller children are enrolled in schools.

A key function which the service provides is to ensure optimal use for travellers of existing educational facilities through the close monitoring of attendance, school visits, provision of advice on the placement of children, providing education information to Traveller families, and ensuring that, in the event of a Traveller family moving from one area to another, the education of the children involved is disrupted as little as possible.