Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for her reply. I take the point she makes that other people also operate in this area. I am concerned that the limited number of people working in the National Educational Welfare Board do not have time to liaise with the home-school-community liaison officers and all the others involved. The staff are particularly helpful but they engage in a fire brigade response to issues that arise. The chief executive of the board said that further research is needed to examine the detailed reasons behind absenteeism but they do not have the time to carry out this research. Will the Minister provide the National Educational Welfare Board with extra staff so that the root cause for absenteeism can be dealt with rather than responding to individual cases?

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