Ms Suzanne Connolly:

It is a very good question. The Deputy is absolutely right; it needs to be asked and there needs to be evidence to support what we are saying. One of the things Barnardos has said is that we really want to understand the impact of what has been a very disruptive school year on children's education. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, and the Government itself have carried out research on this and we understand that some children who were lucky enough to be well-resourced at home, which is to say they were not worried about money, had access to digital facilities and their parents supported them, may not have suffered that much educationally. However, we are really worried that children who did not have that support at home, did not have access to broadband and who struggled to motivate themselves or be motivated to do well in school will suffer. Interestingly enough, Ms Keane has to leave in approximately four minutes because she is going to meet a family and Tusla to talk about a particular situation in which a child has not gone back to school. I will not ask her to talk about that particular case but there are probably other things going on in the family outside of the child not doing well educationally. I imagine there are struggles with parenting and so on. We know from our targeted family support work that children have really been impacted where they did not have the support at home that other children have. That is the reality. The other thing-----