Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice to that of Deputy Murnane O'Connor. I have come across a similar scenario relating to boys' and girls' schools in Ardee. One of the schools got DEIS status but the other did not, in spite of the fact that they deal with the same demographics. These anomalies need to be considered. It is about trying to get resources to the people who require them.

This is not the first time I have raised the issue of early interventions. I am thinking about specific cases. We know that many families and communities could do with early interventions that work with all services, including those involved in education, the Garda, Tusla and whoever else, to get a better result. In some cases, however, there are very chaotic circumstances and the Garda, Tusla, the county council or whoever else does not have the tools required to deal with issues where children are in danger. I understand that, at times, Tusla has to attempt to keep family units together but I have seen chaotic scenarios where there are issues with drug addiction, criminality or other factors I will not address now. There is a need to put the resources together. In some cases, the county council gets blamed by neighbours who are impacted by this chaos. We need to provide the resources that are required.

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