I propose to take Questions Nos. 52, 56, 63 and 74 together.
The Education (Welfare) Act was fully commenced on 5 July 2002. Under the Act the National Educational Welfare Board was established to ensure that every child attends school regularly or otherwise receives an education.
To discharge its responsibilities the board is developing a nationwide service to provide welfare-focused services to children, families and schools. It appointed a chief executive officer, directors of corporate services and educational welfare services and a management team of eight staff. To date 53 educational welfare staff have been appointed. This includes 29 former school attendance officers who transferred to the board from the pre-existing service. Recently the board advertised a competition to fill a further 15 vacancies that will bring the total staff complement to 84.
At this stage of the board's development its aim is to provide a service to the most disadvantaged areas, including areas designated under the Government's RAPID programme and most at risk groups. Five regional teams have been established with bases in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. For the first time an educational welfare service is available in the cities of Limerick, Galway and Kilkenny. As many as 12 towns have significant school going populations and 11 are designated under the Government's RAPID programme. They now have an educational welfare officer allocated to them. These towns are Dundalk, Drogheda, Navan, Athlone, Carlow, Wexford, Bray, Clonmel, Tralee, Ennis, Sligo and Letterkenny. In addition, the board will follow up on urgent cases nationally where children are not receiving an education.