Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. The national Traveller and Roma education strategy is something I feel passionate about. It does fall within the remit of my Department because early years is a key issue. We know in terms of accessing the early childhood care and education scheme, ECCE, the access rate of the Travelling community is 10% less than the settled community. The educational disadvantage is already being ingrained there. Funding will deal with that. Part of the allocated extra money is to ensure that the Traveller pilot programme - I do not have the name right - which is run in a number of schools across the country and seeks to support the retention in particular of Traveller children in education, is supported for another year. It had originally run for two years but because of Covid, it will run for an extra year.

There are a range of reports published. The Out of the Shadows report is really important, as well as a significant report on bullying in schools with a particular lens on the bullying Traveller children have had experienced. A range of issues will feed into the Traveller and Roma education strategy that we will be working to bring to fruition next year.

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