Ms Gráinne Cullen:

The work we are trying to do in this regard is to bring about change over a sustained period with targeted resources. While there are many resources that are universal in schools, there is also the DEIS programme. The proportion of Traveller children in the DEIS programme is much higher than that of the general population. The proportion of the general population is 25% and that of the Traveller population is 63%. Travellers will benefit from the schemes and resources within the DEIS programme. I am referring to targeting through the strategy and its implementation plan.

One thing to outline has to do with the numbers transferring and the numbers in our schools, including enrolments, which comprise our main method of knowing how many children are in our schools, and what we call the retention rate. On the transfer between primary and post-primary school in post-Covid times, we have high enrolment in our primary schools, but the transfer between sixth class and first year is often where the weakness occurs. For Traveller children prior to Covid, between 95% and 98% were moving from sixth class into first year. The national average was 99%, so it was very close. The post-Covid number has dropped for everyone. It is 95.6% for the general population, but there is a bigger drop for Traveller children to 82%.

There is also the retention of numbers to third year. I am trying to outline the pattern, but leaving school at the age of 16 has always been a marker in respect of these communities. The number of Travellers who are retained to, or go into, third year is 91.6%. They are there and are staying to third year. It drops to 78.3% when we look at how many actually sit the junior certificate, but that has increased by 16% over the past seven years. I am trying to look at the targets and so on for the strategy. If we look back six years and then try to look forward six years, what will we try to do over that period? Where our really big drop is, and what everybody in this room and everybody in the room previously is very aware of, is in the number of Traveller children who stay and sit the leaving certificate, which is down to 26.5%. When we develop the strategy and listen to all of the partners around the table and all of the communities, that is where the focus needs to be.