Ms Cliodhna O'Neill:

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and the committee members for their invitation to attend. I am the acting assistant secretary in the Department of Education with responsibility for the schools division for social inclusion. I am joined by Ms Gráinne Cullen, principal officer with responsibility for social inclusion, Mr. Frank Hanlon, principal officer with responsibility in the special education division, and Ms Kate Waterhouse, assistant principal officer, also in social inclusion.

This meeting is very timely as the Department is pleased to say it is making considerable progress in work to develop a Traveller and Roma education strategy, in line with the commitment in the programme for Government and in the context of the new national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy, NTRIS. We are working in close collaboration with Traveller and Roma organisations and in partnership with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in this regard.

A significant consultation process is under way with the Traveller and Roma communities, including children and young people from those communities, with a view to developing a draft for the relevant Ministers at the end of this quarter. In fact, a consultation event is taking place this morning in County Cork, pretty much as we speak. This consultation and the strategy are also commitments in the Department’s annual statement of priorities and annual plan, Forbairt. This is the background against which our work on implementing many of the committee’s recommendations in its report is occurring. Today’s engagement will also feed into our work on the strategy. The Department’s statement of strategy for 2023 to 2025 sets out our vision for an education system where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach his or her full potential. This drives all our work and will be a guiding principle in the Traveller and Roma education strategy.

I will address some of the key points raised by the committee in correspondence. A key objective of Traveller education policy in recent years has been a move towards greater inclusion. This has included the phasing out of segregated education provision for Traveller children and the inclusion of Traveller children and young people in mainstream education. In line with this policy objective, funding previously used for segregated provision for Traveller children has been incorporated into overall school and other funding streams in order to provide additional supports necessary to enable Travellers’ participation in mainstream education on equal terms.

The Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, programme is a key policy initiative of the Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way. In 2022, a refined DEIS identification model was used to identify schools for an expansion of the DEIS programme. The new model now ensures that the number of Traveller and Roma children enrolled in a school is calculated into the DEIS identification model. The DEIS programme was expanded significantly in 2022 to include 322 additional schools in the programme, which as a result now supports 1,196 schools. As a result of this expansion, the percentage of Travellers enrolled in schools in the DEIS programme and benefiting from the supports has increased considerably. In the 2020-21 school year, 52% of Travellers enrolled in primary schools were in schools supported through the DEIS programme. This increased to 71.9% in the 2022-23 school year, following the extension using the refined model.

At post-primary level, the figures increased from 48.6% to 55% over the same period. This equates to more than 63% of Travellers across primary and post-primary levels, compared with an overall proportion of 25% of students, in schools supported through the DEIS programme nationally. The Department spends in excess of €180 million on additional supports through DEIS annually. While not all Traveller children attend DEIS schools, all schools are eligible to receive additional capitation based on the number of Traveller children enrolled in the school. The basic capitation rate is €200 per student in primary schools and up to €345 per student in post-primary schools. Additional pupil capitation for Travellers is €75 per pupil at primary level, and €213.50 per pupil at post-primary level. This is provided at a current annual cost of €1.3 million.

External to DEIS, ten additional home-school community liaison co-ordinators now support 14 post-primary schools outside of the DEIS programme, where a need has been identified due to the number of Traveller and Roma children attending. This is funded through the Dormant Accounts Fund.

The visiting teacher service for Travellers was discontinued in 2011. While this was a budgetary measure as part of a reduction in the education budget, it was done in line with the policy move towards inclusion and away from segregated provision. In our schools, the allocation model for special education teachers facilitates targeted supports for all students who require additional support, including literacy and numeracy support. This includes the provision of support to Traveller children in an integrated and inclusive context.

On reduced school days, the Department published guidelines on the use of reduced school days, which came into effect from January 2022. The guidelines set out that the use of reduced school days must be limited, may be considered by a school only where it is deemed absolutely necessary and can only be implemented with the consent of a student’s parent or guardian. Schools must inform the Tusla education support service, TESS, when a student is placed on a reduced school day. The Department will continue to monitor the use of reduced school days, including through the work of the inspectorate. We will publish and review data on the use of reduced school days to understand more about when and how these are used in schools. We now have this data for the first time. We will check to see that reduced school days are used in line with the guidance, only where necessary, and to the benefit of the child or young person.

Several Department programmes can support homework clubs for students at risk of educational disadvantage, including Traveller children. These include the DEIS grant, which many schools use to support homework clubs after school, and other after-school activities aimed at groups of children deemed to be at most risk of educational disadvantage, including Traveller children. The school completion programme, SCP, which supports attendance, participation and retention across DEIS schools, can also be used to support after-school clubs. Homework clubs are also among the initiatives currently under way as part of the supporting Traveller and Roma, STAR, in education pilot project. The Leas-Chathaoirleach referenced the letter we sent to the committee regarding STAR. There are also some after-school activities and homework clubs, provided through Tusla and funded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and other sources, which do not fall within the Department’s remit.

The pilot STAR project was established in 2019 and rolled out incrementally across four pilot sites. It aims to address the barriers impacting on Traveller and Roma attendance, participation and retention in education. It is funded jointly with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and provides educational welfare officers, home-school community liaison officers and Traveller or Roma community education workers, who work together with the schools to support children and families. The TESS and Traveller and Roma representative bodies are key stakeholders in this project. An independent evaluation is currently under way by the Centre for Effective Services and will be completed in the coming months. This will provide information and evidence to inform the development of the Traveller and Roma education strategy.

On the recommendations, we have sent the committee an update on the implementation of the recommendations of the committee’s report, which we are happy to discuss further today.

I will briefly reference the Department’s Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying, which is based on the UNESCO whole-school approach and aims to ensure that schools are welcoming and inclusive for all. It was greatly informed by consultation with children and young people, including Traveller children and young people. I also refer to the Department’s work in ensuring that children and young people are meaningfully included in decision-making on issues that impact them. The views of Traveller and Roma children are also captured in this work and will continue to be.

The Department is deeply committed to providing a supportive and inclusive education system for all children and young people. We have built strong relationships with stakeholders and we believe we are working in real partnership to develop the Traveller and Roma education strategy.

I thank members for giving us the opportunity to engage with them during today’s meeting. We look forward to answering their questions and using today's discussions to inform the ongoing development of the Traveller and Roma education strategy in the context of NTRIS.