Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

7. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current number of full-time equivalent educational welfare officer positions across Ireland, by county, in tabular form; the number of these positions currently vacant; the timeline for filling these vacancies; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8491/25]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

What is the current number of full-time equivalent educational welfare officer positions across Ireland, by county? How many of these are currently vacant? What is the timeline for filling the vacancies? Will the Minister make a statement on the matter?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the work and role of the educational welfare officers who work within the educational welfare service. Their key focus and objective is to ensure every child attends school regularly and receives the minimum education to which he or she is entitled to and deserves. It is a really important role, particularly given that the rate of absenteeism has increased significantly since Covid. It has increased not just at primary level but also at post-primary level. In DEIS areas in particular, there has been an increase. At post-primary level, there has been an increase, but at primary level the increase has been almost 42%. Therefore, almost one in two children is missing more than 20 days. We need to address that. I am absolutely committed to doing so. Educational welfare officers have a key role to play in this. They work as part of the Tusla education support service, which includes the welfare service. Only recently has it fallen under the remit of my Department, but I believe this is the appropriate place for it to sit. There is a considerable amount of work under way. The service works not only with children and young people but also with parents and families experiencing difficulty with school attendance.

The number of education welfare officers has increased significantly since 2021, from around 90 to 154. Also, there has been the restructuring of the various regions. There are now six regions based on child population and they are fully aligned with the Tusla regions. The officers are assigned to schools, not just counties, so there will be a cross-county aspect at times. There is flexibility in the assignment of schools to officers to ensure an effective and efficient service across the country.

The 154 officers working across the six regions are supported by regional managers. There are 21 teams operating across the regions, supported by a senior welfare officer. Among the 154 educational welfare officers, who are whole time equivalents, are 23 officers who provide services to the most vulnerable children.

There are 23 vacancies at present. I stress that 34 new positions were sanctioned only last year. Some of them have been filled and there are ongoing competitions to fill the remainder. I fully expect the positions to be filled. The Deputy can see the significant increase and the priority being attached to this matter, for the very obvious reasons I have mentioned.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. She mentioned the rate of chronic absence from schools has more than doubled after Covid. More than a quarter of primary schoolchildren and more than a fifth of secondary school students missed at least a month of school days during the 2022–23 school year. As the Minister said, the figure is even higher in disadvantaged areas, with 42% of children attending DEIS primary schools having missed 20 days or more during the 2022-23 school year.

I welcome the increase in the number of officers and agree they have an important role to play. The reason I am asking my question is that school leaders recognise the importance of the role and are appreciative of it and also recognise there are absences. When they seek support, it is not available. When does the Minister expect the recruitment to be completed? When does she expect the positions will be filled?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | 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.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I believe she will be providing me with the figures. I realise providing figures in tabular form does not always work well when taking oral questions.

I am also hearing from school leaders that there has been a shift in protocol in terms of the expectations and demands of schools before Tusla educational welfare officers are engaged. From some of my engagement with school leaders, I have learned this puts an additional burden on schools that they do not have the capacity for. It is not an improvement on the previous experience, whereby they could engage earlier. Could the Minister look into that? I am sure she has heard about it.

It may be a matter of tweaking the protocol and ensuring there is better engagement. Perhaps when some of these posts are filled, it might fill some of the gap. We need to ensure that the system works well and there is a fair level of responsibility between Tusla and the individual schools.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. There are often varied and complex reasons why a young person is not in school or needs support from an education and welfare officer. The only way we can deal with this is through everybody working together. That means the schools working with the programmes provided by the Tusla education support service. There is also an opportunity outside of school. I see a real opportunity, now that responsibility for youth is passing to the Department of Education, to provide out-of-school-hours support to create that link and to make it even stronger, but also to provide extra supports for our teachers and schools. That is where DEIS plus and the expansion of the programme that is positively impacting many young people's lives is vital. We must ensure that we identify at the earliest possible stage the challenges that young people are facing, what is going on at home and how we can provide extra resources, and, importantly, how we can work with parents and families to be able to provide wraparound support and services. There is a role for everybody, including our schools and school leaders, our education and welfare officers and our school completion programme, in the overall development of our DEIS plan to ensure it all fits and works well together.