Dessie Ellis (Dublin North-West, Sinn Fein)

I thank Ms O'Neill for her presentation. A few areas were discussed. She referenced that two co-ordinators have been appointed and 15 link workers. How does that work? Are they being put into different areas? What way is that being approached?

On the issue of school inspectors, we have a problem with inspectors in normal schools. We do not seem to have proper inspections. I am not sure what way this is going to work for the Traveller and Roma communities. Will these co-ordinators and link workers be part of monitoring attendance?

I am a bit worried about the meals for students going to DEIS schools. This leads to their education. If they go there hungry, they are not tuned in. There is terrible uncertainty all the time about this. I am told there is further uncertainty coming up next year. They tried to stop them in Ballymun. They extended them until the end of this year, but next year we are told that may be a different story. It is slightly outside what the witnesses are presenting on, but it is still tied into education because it is important that young kids are properly nourished before they start school.

I am curious about monitoring the issue of suicide and teaching young kids about this. What way is that being co-ordinated? How do we get this message across? The suicide rate is high in the Traveller community. Unfortunately, even some young Travellers have been caught up in this.

The video for the teachers about how they should be able to deal with different issues is good. That is worthwhile because there are so many different issues. I am curious about the social workers in schools. On top of the other issues that Ms O'Neill referenced, are we up to speed in each school with social workers? Are there enough to deal with the issues that are arising?

It is important in the video that the teachers can see how the culture works, have ideas on how to tackle different issues relating to the Traveller community and to understand the culture and what is going on. There are not huge numbers of the Roma community in different areas. We might only have a few in different schools. I am not sure how effective that is. There are small numbers in Finglas and Ballymun, but it is very small compared to other areas. Can Ms O'Neill provide us with some insights on the issues?