Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Regarding the 23 vacancies, 34 positions were approved only last year, so there is obviously momentum. I expect the posts to be filled within this year. The vast majority of counties have zero vacancies. My county, Meath, has zero, as do Tipperary, Wexford, Kerry, Mayo, Clare, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Cavan, Roscommon, Monaghan, Carlow, Longford and Leitrim. They have also their positions. In other counties, there are one or two vacancies. Dublin has a higher vacancy rate. I note there are challenges in general when it comes to filling positions but we are absolutely committed to filling those.

There is a really strong plan in place. We are two years into it now. It is being led through the Tusla education support service. There is a five-year action plan to consider specifically how we can improve school attendance. That includes the work of the education officers and the school completion programme. I have already asked my officials to ascertain where the work already done is showing positive results and incorporate the work into our development of DEIS+ but also account for the OECD report of last year that considers disadvantaged areas so as to put forward a very clear plan for the coming years to support, in particular, young people who are more disadvantaged, who we see are spending fewer days in school.

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