Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for her reply. I also welcome the report, which highlights the need to tackle inadequacy in our education system. Young people from all areas must be helped and encouraged to reach their full potential. We must tackle illiteracy head-on by making reading materials accessible to young people from an early age. The Fatima regeneration board has introduced newspapers and magazines as part of its homework club, which will go a long way towards encouraging young people to read more. Students must have access to a broad range of materials and in this respect additional funding is required, particularly from the Department of Education and Science.

Sadly, however, many young people often cannot reach their educational potential because they are caught in a poverty trap. This can lead to a wide variety of other problems in school, some of which the Minister has mentioned. If children go to school hungry they cannot concentrate on homework. A report published last year showed that in my constituency of Dublin South-Central, 28.8% of children in full-time education leave school before the age of 15. Some 29.2% of children left with a primary education or no full-time education at all. Additional funding is needed to ameliorate those figures. We need to get away from labelling schools as being in disadvantaged areas because this further marginalises young people attending them.

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