Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree. The two-year pilot will be rolled out shortly. I think it is in a position to go live very soon and it will involve Tusla. It will enhance Tusla education welfare supports and additional home, school, community liaison co-ordinators, which we will fund. In addition, it will also fund the Traveller community workers in pilot areas to work with Tusla staff where Traveller children are enrolled. It focuses on the biggest thing, namely, retention within the school system. If we cannot develop policies that work in that area, then we will not achieve anything.

The policy position is that Travellers not be educated separately. It is an established policy that Travellers should be in mainstream education and not separated out. The old system of visiting teachers and so on, which the Senator referred to, was a separate strain. To be fair to the Department of Education and Skills, over those years the investment in resource teaching, which is designed to meet the needs of children who come to school with particular difficulties, has been increased by 50%. We now have close to 14,000 teachers in resource teaching. They are available to pupils, be they from a Traveller background or any other background, who exhibit particular difficulties in dealing with the education programmes. That is a very substantial resource that has gone in. Funding was increased by 50% even in those very difficult years.

It is hoped that this integrated model, if we can improve attendance, will mean that the resources are available within schools to address some of these needs. That is why the focus has been on attendance, in particular. Also, it is the first time that targets have been set for progression to third level. We are trying to ensure that a coherent pathway is developed over time.

I note the Senator's concern. I will ensure that reasonable progress reports are provided to the Oireachtas so that we can see how we are progressing in this area, which is rightly a matter of considerable concern.