Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail)

The witnesses are very welcome this afternoon. I apologise that I was late coming in. I have a huge interest in this area. I requested that they come before us and I thank the Chair and the clerk for organising it.

I am listening to the contributions and I have briefly gone over the documents. However, I cannot sit back and wonder why my request was not initiated on the first day ever. This is important for me to share with the committee. One reason I requested the Department come before us is that I happened to be in Ballinasloe recently with the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan. We were at a youth diversion programme meeting with youth workers in the area. A really sad story was shared with me and with all of us who were there. It was about how difficult it is for children from the Traveller community to access education. They told me that three children had failed to access education up to the age of seven and a half. School after school refused. It was not the child's refusal but the school's refusal. The youth workers were following that child's experience, and that child transitioned to secondary school until October, in Ballinasloe. Why did the child not survive even until the junior certificate? Schools become amalgamated. I am looking through certain items in the document. Amalgamation is how all-girls schools or all-boys schools come together. They had a policy that the youth worker could no longer support a child if they found themselves on that one card. Actually, you do not do that. I am the mother of three so I know exactly how the first years go on. None of them are perfect. Actually, it was a case of "one strike and you are out". That child was out of the newly amalgamated school in Ballinasloe in October of first year. That child was out of education from there on. There was no support because the school chose that the youth diversion group could not support the child within. The child went into education at the age of seven and a half and was out of it by 13. That is normal and a regular occurrence. After Darndale, Ballinasloe is the second most deprived area in the country. If that is how we are treating our most vulnerable, I do not think we have a chance.

I am going back over the documents, scanning certain words. Amalgamations are one issue, as are school refusals by the schools, and feuds. If families are fighting, some families are more intimidated about going to school. It is a huge issue for Tusla. It will acknowledge that. I do not see it in this document. I hope to hear that in the Department's dropdown menu, feuds is an issue. Children are not going to school because families are fighting and because of social media and the calling-out of it. Covid-19 had a huge impact on everything else, but children want to be in school because it is what they are supported to do. That is why we have the early childhood care and education, ECCE scheme, in order to teach the process to get them into the system. That is why the Department of children, with the HSE, supports the scheme. Where children are identified as at risk or as a vulnerability, there is a package for X number of weeks to help them transition, with that piece of regularity. What piece is there in junior infants? Ms O'Neill alluded to that. That settling-in period is really important. What is the settling-in period for that child in junior infants or senior infants? In the same way, what is the settling-in policy in first year? Not all children transition well. A child going from a small rural school, not necessarily from any particular background, could struggle with first year. They might go from a school of 70 or 100 kids to one with 1,000 kids. In the case of Athenry, there are 1,000 kids in the school. Some kids do not transition well.

I have concerns as to how the Department is working collaboratively with Tusla where we are finding feuds. They are a big issue now in the community, with the calling-out on social media. Also, how is it working as regards cases where a child gets five years of education and that is it done?