Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The legal responsibilities include compiling registers and taking prosecutions. The board is also responsible for assisting parents in the preparation of section 29 appeals. The board meets those legal responsibilities. In addition, the board has other responsibilities which are, strictly speaking, not legal ones. These involve helping, advising and guiding parents, and that is important. There are 490 staff employed in the system. An additional 137 individuals are deployed in educational disadvantage programmes whose work involves a school attendance element. I do not know if the Deputy included that when he drew the comparison with British figures. A further 137 are due to come on stream under the DEIS initiative in the coming months.

See this speech in context