Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I will not take up too much time. I take on board what the Minister stated. I thank her for the lesson on the Education (Welfare) Act 2000. It is good to get a reminder, but the point is that Act is the legislation under which the National Educational Welfare Board will work and the trouble is that the board states it needs its full complement of staff in order to carry out its job under the remit of that Act. In that respect, notwithstanding that in certain types of schools there are home-school-community liaison officers and school completion staff, it is still the education welfare officer who holds the statutory obligation.

I concur with Deputy O'Sullivan's question on whether the school informs the National Educational Welfare Board and if the parents are aware of their rights. I ask for a response in that regard.

I stress that amendment No. 9 seeks to insert a requirement that the Minister or her Department would monitor the efforts being made by the National Educational Welfare Board and that if, after a reasonable period, nothing has happened or no alternative suitable arrangements have been put in place, a direct departmental or ministerial intervention would take place to ensure that happens.

While I again acknowledge that this Bill is about protecting the rights of the teachers and the students as much as the ones who are causing the violence or disruptive behaviour that gets them expelled, there is still an obligation to educate such children. One cannot leave the matter hanging for a period of a year at the end of which the child's educational requirements will be greater and his or her life opportunities will be diminished.

I will be quite blunt, although it is not the correct period in which to say it. The more children who end up out of the system early and end up having kids, who, in turn, end up out of the system and having kids, the more the situation worsens. It is about early intervention, as I stated on Second Stage and previously. It is most important to nip the problem in the bud as quickly as possible and give children a chance to meet their educational requirements. The buck must stop with the Minister if the National Educational Welfare Board cannot or will not do its job.

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