Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising the matter.

The Education (Welfare) Act 2000, which is now fully commenced, established the National Educational Welfare Board as the single body with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework which promotes regular school attendance and tackles the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. To discharge its responsibilities, the board will develop a nationwide service accessible to schools, parents, guardians and others concerned with the welfare of young people. To this end, educational welfare officers are to be appointed and deployed throughout the country to provide a welfare-focused service to support regular school attendance and discharge the board's functions locally. The board appointed an interim chief executive officer in August 2002. Directors of corporate and educational services have recently taken up their posts. The board is currently recruiting eight further head office staff.

The transfer to the board of 37 former school attendance officers who were employed by local authorities under the previous legislation took place on 5 July 2002 in accordance with section 40 of the Act. These staff members are providing a service in the cities of Dublin, Cork and Waterford. Of these staff members, 25 have recently accepted the terms and conditions of employment as educational welfare officers and will henceforth carry out the full range of EWO duties to provide a year-round service rather that the school-term based service they provided as school attendance officers.

A key function of the board is to provide support and advice for schools regarding the implementation of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000. The board issued an introductory letter to all schools in March this year to inform them of the legislation and of plans to build a national education welfare service on a phased basis. Under the Act, schools are required to monitor attendance and to submit reports to the local educational welfare officer in certain circumstances.