Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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We have already established that 22% of the Traveller community get to the leaving certificate, which is 69% to 70% behind the rest of society. If islanders or Gaeltacht people, who are distinct communities, had that rate of disadvantage, we would focus specific extra funding in those areas. What we are talking about here is something that is available to everybody according to his or her need, which we all agree with, but we know there is a community that because of social attitudes, etc., needs extra help. I was around the system in 2010. I was not there in 2011 or 2012 as I was a backbencher. My memory was that we were cutting back at that time and the money was taken.

How much in extra resources was subsumed into the system, or disappeared, which was my memory of it? We were all cutting back at that stage. How much did that cost? It is not that we should have continued with what it was being used for then, but I am just curious about how much money was specifically for this community, which seems to be at a massive educational disadvantage compared with all of the communities in Ireland.