Ms Patricia Sheehan:

I take on board the comments Senator Ruane made about the educational disadvantage task force but, overall, DEIS is seen to be making improvements. We acknowledge, however, that in the area of Traveller outcomes and education we need to do an awful lot more.

My colleague, Mr. Hughes, mentioned the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy, NTRIS, pilots. We see huge potential in those in identifying the barriers and coming up with solutions to them. As Mr. Hughes mentioned, the pilot is in four areas and has been established in three of them. Within the three areas we cannot say at this stage what the level of participation of Traveller students will be but it has the potential to reach more than 1,000 students. We have 679 children enrolled in the schools in the three pilot areas established. The one that is not established yet is Cork. In Galway, Dublin and Wexford there are 679 students at primary level and 341 pupils at post-primary level, so the reach to those families, to the children and their parents, will be fairly substantial.

Regarding the scope of the project, with the teams working together, we have very firmly set guidelines on what should be done. There is a national pilot oversight group, and in each area there will be a local pilot steering group which will identify its local needs and come up with its local plan. It is very much a matter of developing relationships with local and Traveller communities; working with schools to address and identify the in-school barriers to attendance and participation; working with parents to support their children's participation in school; encouraging and supporting attendance in early-years services; liaising with statutory, community and voluntary services to enhance attendance, participation and retention; supporting the children in transitions from preschool to primary, post-primary and on to junior cycle and transitions into further and higher education; developing a local action plan, as I mentioned, informed by local data and identified needs; working with partner Departments to share the learning outcomes of the programme; being flexible and creative in developing innovative approaches to supporting Traveller and Roma attendance, participation and retention; and exploring and collaborating with other community and statutory initiatives that can support the programme, such as DEIS initiatives or, for example, the Yellow Flag programme.

Within the project, universal interventions will be available to all pupils along with target interventions for specific individual pupils or groups of pupils. It is envisaged that the majority of Traveller and Roma children enrolled in the schools will interact with the universal interventions.

The pilot project is being evaluated. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has commissioned research. The first strand of that is to gather baseline information on the position in these areas, very much focusing on qualitative research, interviews with parents, schools and pupils. Part of that research will involve researchers working with local pilot teams to develop instruments for how they will measure success and monitor the project. How does one measure engagement or a sense of belonging? That research will inform, at an early stage, where the Department needs to provide further investment and determine what are the issues We see it allowing for greater dialogue between schools, students and parents to try to build trust, gain an understanding of what is happening to prevent children progressing and then inform the Department when it takes policy actions to address issues.