Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions. Do our guests know what percentage of Traveller children in mainstream schools have the assistance of special needs assistants, SNAs? Ms Joyce spoke about the education strategy for Travellers, something I would very much support, but there has to be a buy-in from the Traveller community as well. One issue I have most often come across in mainstream town and country schools where I come from in Wexford relates to the absenteeism of Traveller children. It is not as big an issue as it was but it is an issue nonetheless. Specifically in the transient community, where children move from place to place and may move on as soon as they have settled somewhere, it is still an issue. What are our guests' views on that? Does it occur to them as a current issue?

Ms Joyce spoke about how teachers may not have the same expectation of Traveller children. This is about encouragement but that includes encouragement in the home. As we all know, if children get encouragement from their parents in the home, they will make much better progress because they will have assistance and so on. Could Traveller children get greater assistance or encouragement from the home to support their educational needs and to reach their full potential? It is fantastic that Ms Reilly has achieved what she has in her own right. The new phenomenon of Travellers being able to access third level education is fantastic and it is only right and proper that they are able to access second and third level education and to reach their full educational potential. I think it was on "Nationwide" a number of months ago that I saw that someone from the Traveller community had trained to be a primary school teacher. All of this is brilliant and a great deal of work has been done in this regard. In my constituency, Wexford, I was involved in the organisation of homework clubs targeted primarily at Traveller children, who were brought in after school for an hour or so to do their homework and be encouraged to reach their full potential. Should there be more homework clubs?

Has the issue of racism in schools improved?

My own kids go to St. Aidan’s Parish School in Enniscorthy. I have to say I would never hear of any racism towards Traveller children in that school, in that they are very much made part and parcel of the school community and encouraged to be part of the school community. I know many Traveller families who attend St. Aidan’s in Enniscorthy and, to my knowledge, there are many other schools across the country which make sure that Traveller children are very much part and parcel of the school community. That is only right and proper. I feel the racism is perhaps not as bad as it was. Do the witnesses have other examples of it? If so, they might inform the committee of that.