Ms Gr?inne Cullen:

I thank the Senator for her questions. I will follow up on the diary of the Minister, Deputy Foley, to set up the meeting she has looked for as I was not aware of it. Among other things, I am responsible for the Traveller and Roma strategy. I am sure the Senator and I will be seeing each other.

As the Senator may be aware, the guidance on the reduced school days came into effect in January 2022. This first ever report is the first set of data we have on reduced school days. Just to mention in respect of the Traveller-Roma piece, we worked with the Traveller-Roma community and produced a video that people from the community helped us to produce, and starred in, to help Traveller parents to understand and know their rights around when a child is put on a reduced school day, and what they can and should expect from the school in respect of a child being put on a reduced school day.

As this is our first set of data, which we are starting to look at now, we are also beginning to investigate behind the numbers. We are very conscious that behind every number there is a child. We want to find out the reason the child is on the reduced school day, the length of time they are on it, and whether the school is really working with the guidelines. One of the things the numbers showed is an over-representation of the Traveller-Roma community. This continues in the special education setting also. I am more involved with the broad Traveller-Roma community whereas Mr. Hanlon is more involved with the special education side of this area. The figures show a decrease in the number of what are called "episodes", which is the number of times a child is put on the reduced school day throughout the year. Again, we need to get behind those numbers to see what is happening with them.

There have been many mentions of the types of interventions in the various-----