Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy has no other questions, I will comment briefly. Most of the issues have been addressed by my colleagues. We know a number of statistics from the 2016 census that are horrific. Only 13% of Travellers complete secondary education in comparison with 92% of the general population. Less than 1%, I think it was only 41 last year, are in third level education. Some 17.7% of Travellers have no formal education whatsoever, compared with 1.4% of the general population. As Deputy Gino Kenny said, the statistics speak for themselves. Anecdotally, we know that an increasing number of Traveller students are leaving schools with poor numeracy and literacy skills. What can we do, not just in terms of making sure the resources are there but also in terms of monitoring this on an ongoing basis? That is very important if we are to get some progression.

A number of people have spoken about discrimination within schools. Certainly the Yellow Flag works around that. I agree with Deputy Jan O'Sullivan that we need to see it in more schools. Are there other initiatives that the witnesses feel would be helpful? There was also comment about the relationship between early years education and future life outcomes. We know from the research that the longer somebody spends in education, the better health outcomes they will have and the longer they will live. They will also have better opportunities of attracting employment. Would it be useful to have an extra year of early education for Traveller children? Pavee Point identified weak engagement between education providers and Traveller society. That should be addressed. Would Pavee Point like to make any other comment on it?

Some of the other submissions from people who are not here today raised the issue of gender roles. Ms Joyce would refer to this also. It is important. I have spoken to teachers who have experience teaching girls and boys from the Travelling community. They see this as a major issue. They have a very good relationship. One of the teachers is a home school liaison teacher who has a fantastic relationship with many of the Traveller mothers who want the best for their children. They say, however, that there is the issue about wanting their daughters to get married at an early age and not seeing other opportunities for them as also being viable. It is about how we try to address those issues. I agree with the possibility of funding following children. That 50% of our students are in non-DEIS schools definitely is a problem. We should have more resources. The capitation grant for Traveller children is far too low. It is only €240 per child unless there is a special class, but it is two to three times lower than grants for other vulnerable children. That should be one of the recommendations we would make.

If witnesses have any thoughts on anything the members have said, we would like to hear them. I will go in reverse order starting with Ms White. I apologise. I had not seen Deputy McLoughlin indicating.