Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans for future cuts for resources teachers for travellers posts; and his further plans to reinstate any in the incoming year. [25092/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The decision to withdraw all resource teacher for Travellers was taken by the previous Government in the last budget. The economic situation means that difficult decisions have had to be taken and implemented in order to make expenditure savings and to ensure that teacher numbers remain within the public service employment control framework.

Traveller pupils who are eligible for learning support teaching should receive this tuition through the existing learning support provision in schools. All schools should select students for learning support on the basis of priority of need.

Limited alleviation measures have been provided to assist schools which have high numbers or concentrations of Traveller pupils who were previously supported by resource teacher for Travellers, RTT, posts. The decision to withdraw the resource teachers for Travellers will not be revisited. There are, therefore, no plans to reinstate the RTT posts this year.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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It is one of those areas on which I would like a further debate.

The Minister stated the decision was made previously. We all would accept that in the past there were difficulties in Traveller education but there was a section of the Traveller community, particularly involving women, that was moving forwards in leaps and bounds. One of my difficulties is that the Department had targeted two thirds of the cuts at teaching posts for Travellers. Fr. Derek Farrell stated it was staggering that the Department had targeted this area.

The difficulty with the removal of these teachers is what will replace them. The Minister can argue that the service will be mainstreamed, etc., but the Traveller community has special needs. Despite the fact that some of the groups that operate on their behalf would say that Travellers should be mainstreamed, Travellers need extra resources due to their lifestyle, the conditions in which they live and what happens within that community.

The Department has done away with these posts. What will replace teaching within the Traveller community? That is the debate that needs to take place and it will not happen in two or three minutes here. It is the big debate in this area. In my view, it is like throwing the baby out with the bath water. The Department has put them all out and that is it, as if it is now resolved. It is not resolved. In fact, rather than improving matters, it will disimprove them. Rather than the position getting better, it will get worse in those schools not only for the Traveller children, but also for the other children.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I accept what Deputy Crowe stated and the spirit in which he has articulated it. We need to have a discussion on this because at a time when there were plenty of resources, money going in that direction was not having the necessary outcomes, in other words, the retention of Travellers on the scale necessary going through the secondary school system. I encountered this in Galway in February or March last, where one of the secondary schools in the city had a very high concentration of Traveller children and the completion levels were very unsatisfactory even though there were resources.

We all must learn how to achieve more with less. Sometimes in the past simply adding extra resources was seen as solving the problem when, in fact, it did not solve the problem. I agree with Deputy Crowe. I would be happy to come back to this House when we have time for a more considered discussion on this issue. The Joint Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education might invite in some of those in this area to talk about what is happening out there.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Is there any evidence available that there has been progress, from the point of view of the children, where mainstreaming has occurred? Earlier in the summer the issue arose in regard to transport to specific schools for children from the Traveller community and the Department replied that efforts had been made to achieve more mainstreaming of the children in terms of attending their local secondary school instead of being transported to centres some distance away. Does the Minister agree that there is potential in mainstreaming that would benefit the children and ensure the retention rate is improved?

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I do not have that information to hand. I will look into it and I will be in touch with Deputy Smith.