Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I join Senators O'Meara and Ormonde in requesting an early debate on the annual ESRI survey on school leavers. It is a frightening indictment of Government inactivity in this area that 68% of the students who leave school without a qualification are without a job one year later, at a time when we have a booming economy. For students who leave with a junior certificate, the jobless figure after one year is reduced to 28% or 30%, and when they leave with a leaving certificate, the figure falls to 15%.

Those are frightening statistics. Some 18% of second-level students drop out. Approximately 1,000 students per annum fail the transition between primary and second level. As the Leader is aware, the root of that lies with the failure to appoint educational welfare officers. We were supposed to have a minimum of 330 such officers throughout the country but currently have only some 69 or 70. Each of those officers must deal with in the region of 185 cases. It is time for the Minister for Education and Science and the Government to respond to the situation so that drop-outs and the disadvantaged are dealt with in a meaningful way and can look forward to some future.