Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

A report published in August showed that children who left school at an early age and particularly before doing their junior or leaving certificate examinations were more at risk of taking drugs. Over the summer months I was appalled to see that the Department of Education and Science had made cutbacks in the school completion programme which targets children who leave school early and affects approximately 25,000 children. The National Educational Welfare Board can no longer deal with children who do not attend school for 59 days. It can only deal with children who miss 60 days or more because of under-funding and lack of staff.

Has the Minister of State had discussions with the Minister for Education and Science to ensure that there will be no more cutbacks in these programmes that affect the underprivileged in society? What will he do regarding the national drugs strategy? Will he provide funding to try to help keep young people at school? It is very important that this programme is kept up. Whatever hope we have, if we do not deal with them at an early age, we will have no hope if they leave the school system uneducated. They will go out into the world and, naturally, they will take drugs. What will the Minister of State do about that? The Minister of State will shortly announce a national drugs strategy. I hope it will have funding to deal with this issue and to educate children in the schools about the effect of drugs.

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