Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. Yes I will; it is something to which I am deeply committed. As an educator myself, I have even taught students about the issue, as well as working with many teachers and schools. I take the point that it is, perhaps, an anomaly that the programme is located within the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. My understanding is that the thinking at the time was that the people working on school completion programme might be able to work closely with those in Tusla, which offers family supports. School completion projects obviously also need to involve family supports because, as we know, families must be supported as part of the process of keeping children in school.

There are a number of things they are doing right now to reform the programme and to improve their annual school retention figures. They have a new governance structure that will be put in place at a national level to support the local projects and new school attendance guidelines have been issued to advise schools on the practical supports that are needed. That is the kind of reform programme that is going on now, which could easily lead in to a good rationale for increased investment.

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