Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise that I had to go to the Seanad for a vote. I have a question on children who are getting caught having fallen out of the school system, including even the primary school system. I am involved with a centre that is looking after 30 young people at the moment. The Department of Education and Skills has advised me that it is not its responsibility. I accept we are dealing with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs on the matter at the moment. We had the strange situation that one of the religious orders was providing €90,000 a year to run the centre. It can no longer provide that funding. The response from the Department of Education and Skills was that while it was regrettable, these 30 children would now have to go back to the schools from which they came. The problem is that those schools do not want them back and we are falling between two stools on the matter.

Someone in the private sector is willing to put up 50% of the funding to continue running the facility and everyone else is running away from it. These 30 children would be on the streets only for this facility. Eleven of the 30 children sat their junior certificate examinations this year. Some of these children were referred to the centre by the school attendance officers because they were not fitting into the educational structure.

How can we deal with that scenario? We are just going day to day trying to keep the centre open. We have about 60 people working voluntarily, all of them qualified teachers, and we are providing what is almost one-to-one education. The Department has claimed it is not its responsibility and, as a result, 30 people may well fall out of the system completely. How does Tusla deal with that kind of scenario?