Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for appearing before the committee this afternoon. The presentations have clearly highlighted the enormous obstacles that Travellers face in accessing education, whether that is early years, primary, secondary or higher and further education. The playing field is not even remotely level. They face a huge uphill battle. I congratulate Ms Reilly on her recent achievement and everyone who has had to climb up that hill and to achieve what they have done against an enormous prevailing wind.

I have a question for Mr. Joyce. I recall the 2008 cut, which was heavily criticised at the time as being a really cynical cut for what is a relatively small part of the budget and caused enormous harm. Has the funding returned to the 2008 level? Where does it need to go from here?

My next question is for Ms Reilly. What jumps out at me is that 70% of Travellers are involved in secondary education up to the age of 15 or 16, at which point there is an enormous drop-off. What is causing that and what can we do to fix it? I know she identified the issue of not all Travellers going to DEIS schools. Is it a question of ensuring that all schools have access to school completion? Is increased investment in home school community liaison required? Do we need Traveller-specific school completion programmes? They may already exist but I am not aware of them. What are the causes and what are the actions we need to take?

I also have a question for Ms Joyce. Educational disadvantage for Travellers and others is built into the system and it can be seen at all tiers, including in higher and further education but it starts at a very young age. Like other disadvantaged children, in many instances Traveller children started from behind at a very young age. What is the level of participation of Traveller children in early years education? Do we need to do more to make pre-primary early years education more accessible and more easily available? Cost, obviously, has a big impact.