Jack Wall
Question:282 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Education and Science her plans for the appointment of two educational welfare officers in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33865/04]
View answerWednesday, 15 December 2004
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The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 established the National Educational Welfare Board as the single national body with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework promoting regular school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. The general functions of the board are to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education.
The board is developing a nationwide service accessible to schools, parents-guardians and others concerned with the welfare of young people to discharge its responsibilities. Educational welfare officers, EWOs, are being 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 budget allocated to the board for 2005, is €7.8 million, an increase of €1.3 million or 20% on the 2004 allocation. My Department recently conveyed approval to the NEWB for the filling of a further ten educational welfare officer posts, bringing the authorised staffing from 84 to 94. These additional posts will enable the board to further roll out its services at local level around the country. Decisions relating to the assignment of the additional staff to specific areas are a matter for the board, which is an independent statutory agency. However, the board recently indicated that Kildare is one of the areas to which it will appoint an EWO. I will keep the issue of the NEWB's staffing under review in the light of the roll out of services and further proposals that the board may put to me regarding identified priority needs.