John Clendennen (Offaly, Fine Gael)

I firmly believe the Minister has made great strides on the issue of school completion. Initiatives such as free school books, hot meals, transport and even the school clothing and footwear allowance announced this week are all helping to encourage more people to stay engaged in education. Youth services have an important role to play as well. Some of the initiatives Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board, LOETB, has rolled out in my constituency are making a difference. While Offaly has one of the lower levels of school completion rates, we only get one allocation due to us having a double-county ETB. Our allocation is one third of what some of the higher allocations are for ETBs throughout the country as a result. I ask the Minister to acknowledge the need for youth services to work in parallel with the education process in order to support those dropping out of school completion at an earlier time.

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