Ms Cliodhna O'Neill:

I will come to the parent in a second. Part of what the entire strategy is trying to do is make sure that the child wants to be there. We understand from our consultation with children and young people, as well as parents, that has quite an influence. If a child is agitating to go, he or she is more likely to be brought to school compared to if he or she is not that bothered. We think that is a very important part of it.

As the Deputy said, family, parental and community attitude is also very important. There are a couple of things in that regard. Through the forum and engagement with the Traveller and Roma communities, they are giving us a lot of feedback about what does and does not work. The community link workers have a very important role. We are keen to see what benefit that brings in respect of working directly with parents, understanding the importance of education and making that clear. The strategy has a role to link in with families at a very early stage because a good attendance pattern from early years can carry right through. That is not specific to the Traveller community; that is everybody. A child who attends regularly in the first weeks of junior infants is much more likely to continue to have good attendance than a child who does not, across the board. It is about trying to engage that piece. As part of the strategy, and exactly as the Deputy said, there is the piece about the school as a welcoming environment, there is the child and then there is the role of the parent. There are a lot of actions for us in that space.