Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses. I, too, will focus my questions on the alliance group. If we accept that the definition in the strategy of the Department of Education is that DEIS schools are for delivering equality of opportunity in schools, then a child who is in a DEIS school should automatically require after-school support, and the funding should follow. Indeed, there should be before-school support. It should begin from early in the morning with breakfasts to a full, comprehensive after-school support. The NCS has obviously affected that, albeit unintentionally. As I see it and as we are articulating it in advocating to the Minister, this is about either a youth work support or else a childcare support. It does not matter where the funding stream comes from as long as it is immediately plugged and there is recognition of the need for it. Aligned to that, a couple of weeks ago the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, launched a comprehensive literacy, numeracy and digital literacy programme, which I am assisting in ensuring it gets out to the public and possibly to the parents of these children, therefore also underlining that they need the after-school support, the homework club support or whatever it is. I would welcome the witnesses' thoughts. What are their specific requests on this in light of next week's budget?