Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak about school completion and the overly elaborate funding streams that were operated by Tusla.

Hopefully, this Bill will stop that happening again. I want to tell the story of the Get Ahead Club, which was a vital service in the north Clondalkin area that offered a wide range of community-based educational initiatives aimed at increasing children's chances of completing school. It was based in north Clondalkin and Lucan and operated in schools in Neilstown, Rowlagh, Quarryvale and Balgaddy. Approximately 120 children a year benefited from this programme in the Get Ahead Club. As I mentioned, these programmes included homework clubs, breakfast clubs and recreational activities. The children who used this club were from a disadvantaged area with a higher than national average level of early school dropout. As we all know, early intervention is key to a child's development and key to finishing education.

The funding stream for this service came from Tusla to the local school completion programme, which then directed the funding to the Get Ahead Club. Somewhere along the line, a decision was made not to allow the local school completion programme to act as the conduit for the funding. I met the Minister's predecessor, Katherine Zappone, on this issue just after the by-election. I was only in the House and it was one of the first things I was working on in the search for a resolution. Our pleas fell on deaf ears and, ultimately, the Get Ahead Club closed its doors and it is lost to the people of north Clondalkin and Lucan forever - it is gone. These convoluted funding mechanisms and bureaucratic red tape resulted in the closure of this vital service. I will be going back to the Minister for Education to ask her to revisit this issue, and I will be happy to send her on all of the information that is needed. I hope this legislation stops something like that happening again.

I spoke with the Minister before on child poverty. One of the basic needs for a child in completing their education is food in the child's belly in order to just get through the day. We had a very emotive debate that day, if I remember correctly. I want to talk about eligibility for the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, scheme, DEIS status and how that has worked. For example, as a child myself, I benefited from the free lunch programme in school. I was not alone and as all of my friends and family benefited from it, there was no stigma associated with it. I still remember which sandwich I got on which day and I remember looking forward to the currant bun on a Friday, at the end of the week. That is what got me through the week and it got a lot of people through the week in the area where I grew up. It enabled us to take part in school in the best way we could. My parents and teachers are probably listening to this and will say it did not work but, at the time, it got me through it.

There are other areas of my constituency that are not traditional areas of disadvantage but which have pockets of poverty within them. This is due to the fact of housing assistance payment, HAP, tenants living in private housing estates but it also involves people who are not traditionally in poverty but who are renting and paying high levels of rent in these areas. This is creating food poverty and income poverty because they are paying extortionate rates, and children from these backgrounds are going to school hungry. Parents from these areas tell me they are accessing the local food bank. I do a bit of work with the Quarryvale and Clondalkin Cares Food Bank, and they tell me people are accessing their services from areas that are not traditionally disadvantaged. That needs to be looked at. DEIS needs to be modernised and brought up to a 2021 level so no child will go to school hungry and come home from school hungry, because that would be a travesty.

My last point, which is tied into this, is in regard to school completion. We mentioned food in the belly and the school completion programmes but there is also access to healthcare. One of the big issues at the moment is in regard to dental care. A report from the Irish Dental Association states that an increasing number of children are only being offered examinations of dental care for the first time at sixth class instead of at first, second, fourth and sixth class. When I was in school, it was at first, second, fourth and sixth class that we got dental care. This should be a priority for either the Minister for Health or the Minister for Education, or something needs to be worked on between them in order to provide that. In my own area of Dublin Mid-West, we have seen a 62% decrease in the number of dental screenings in the last year, which is simply not good enough. As we know there are strong links between good oral health and good physical health, it is vital that the HSE and the Department of Education develop a contingency plan in order that children can receive this vital service, which will enable them to finish school.

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