Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Time is short. I have two questions. A number of people have identified the fact that the visiting teachers were important and played a key role in liaising with families, with getting children into school and then progressing them. How much has the loss of those visiting teachers impacted on children from the community in the form of not attending school, dropping out early and not going past primary level? The Department's pilot scheme deals with some of that through the school liaison office, but that is only a pilot scheme.

It is almost ten years since cuts were made to Traveller education funding. How much has that affected Travellers? Is there a need to reintroduce those liaison teachers? I have another question for the Department on the issue of educational welfare officers, EWOs. We do not have an EWO in my area of Dublin 12 because no replacement was provided when the officer went on maternity leave. There is no officer in Lucan either. Are there enough EWOs at present? Are they embedded in communities? I ask the departmental officials to tell us exactly how many EWOs are employed and where they are located.