Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

The Minister did not answer the question. My question related to the school drop-out rate. Is she aware that in the census report of 1996, approximately 3% of students had dropped out of post-primary education by the age of 15 years? The latest data from the 2006 census shows that the figure is 6.6%. Last year, 3,700 students had left post-primary education by the age of 15 years. That is a doubling of the school drop-out rate over the past ten years. Will the Minister accept that her Government and her administration over the past ten years have failed miserably to tackle this problem?

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