Ms Gr?inne Cullen:

The headline figures are, moving from primary to post-primary, 95% to 99% of Traveller children progress from sixth class into first year. At junior cycle, 90% who enter in first year are still in the system in third year. It then starts to drop, with 72% sitting the junior certificate examination. In the past five years, that has been an increase of 10%, so the trend is going in the right direction. At leaving certificate level, 44% are still in the system in the second year. Again, the drop happens when they sit the leaving certificate, with that figure being 31.4%. This is really where we target the work, around the post-primary piece, particularly at those around 16 years of age, which is when compulsory education finishes. The big question is to how to keep those children in the system, and more importantly, how to get them through.

An interesting statistic is published in our annual retention data. There are quite a number of Traveller children on the Solas further education and training, FET, system. I think 45% of the children who start in first year, rather than finishing in school, are finishing in the FET system.