Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I turn to a specific group of Travellers living on halting sites. I will go back to what I said about the child trying to do homework in the caravan. That was the only room in the house aside from very small bedrooms. Have there been any discussions, or is there any forum where discussions could take place with local authorities, about local authority halting sites to make sure there would be a community room available on every one of those sites for after-school clubs? It is fine to have them in the schools. For most children, and most Traveller children, that will be the optimum solution and it keeps children together. However, when children on halting sites go home there is a need for a space for them. Would the Department consider that through NTRIS or whatever? To me, that is a vital part of education. It is not all in the classroom. There is the opportunity to read, to access books and so on. As I said, children on halting sites have a particular challenge that we need to overcome to give them equal opportunity. It was mentioned that ten additional home-school liaison co-ordinators are now supported. This is being funded by the Dormant Accounts Fund. I do not know if the Dormant Accounts Fund has changed dramatically, but that used to be approximately three-year funding. Do I take it that that funding is time limited? Can we rest assured that it will not be time limited in terms of liaison officers? One of the problems with those time-limited funds is the question of what happens when the fund runs out. To put it in simple English, will it be mainstreamed? Home school liaison and all of these extra supports are absolutely vital if we are to try to level the playing pitch.

A review of the STAR project was mentioned. Is that completed?