I propose to take Questions Nos. 71 and 86 together.
School attendance committees are responsible for the enforcement of the School Attendance Act in certain parts of Dublin, and in Cork and Waterford. In all other areas the Garda Síochána have responsibility. Consequently, figures for rates of early leaving are not in the normal course available to my Department. The lack of accurate data on school non-attendance was one of the difficulties identified in my Department's report on School Attendance/ Truancy published in 1994.
At national level, the 1995 ESRI Annual School Leavers Survey which focuses on 1993-94 school leavers is currently being finalised. Preliminary data from the survey indicates that there has been a substantial decline in the number of leavers with no qualifications from a base of 3,300 in 1992-93.
A comparison of second level pupils who were enrolled in schools in 1995-96 with those enrolled in 1994-95 would suggest that some 3,437 pupils may have left school before the legal age, of whom 1,305 were in the greater Dublin area. This is an indicator only, and there could be other reasons, such as emigration, as to why pupils below leaving certificate year 2 level featured on record in 1994-95 but not the following year.
It is a fundamental objective in the White Paper: "Charting our Education Future" that the rate of retention in school to completion of senior cycle should increase to 90 per cent by the end of the decade. Progress in the achievement of this target is being made, and rates of retention have increased from 70 per cent in 1986 to 82 per cent at present.
