Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)

I will go back to the question of what the most important thing is we should do to make sure Traveller children go to school as regularly as the general population goes to school. For instance, are there any plans to target parental support and change the attitudes of parents, which is the big thing we are missing here? That is the biggest issue we face. We can throw all the money we want at it and have all the schemes but still have that issue. In my constituency of Limerick, a huge number of Traveller children are still not going to school. They are on holidays at the moment but when we sit here normally, they are not at school.

That question is about parents and what we can do to talk to parents. I know some of the schools. It is very unfair of us to leave it to the school service on its own. It does not have the resources or supports. Schools I have been dealing with are doing the best they can. They have fantastic staff who are dedicated beyond belief in what they are trying to do, but they do not have the resources. Unless we engage the parents, we are on a hiding to nothing. How do we break that cycle?