Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is new to his portfolio but the one word that concerns me, which reflects on the Department rather than the Minister himself, is "anecdotally". Has the Department statistics or information on the extent of the problem in schools? One of the recommendations from the Children's Rights Alliance is that the educational attainments of children be tracked. I am concerned, however, that the Minister and the Department do not have information about individual children.

We know from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government how many children have been left homeless but the Minister for Education and Skills and his Department do not know what is happening to those children in schools. It is not known what schools they are concentrated in, how their educational attainments are being mishandled because of this crisis and what resources schools need. The Department needs to up its game on this issue and make sure these children are looked after and that they do not lose out educationally because of the homelessness situation in which they and their families find themselves.

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