Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister back to the House. In the two days the Seanad has been back, he has been here more than I have. I thank him for his commitment to always be in the House for Commencement matters, which is appreciated.

I get the logic of this Bill. There is no question about that. It is wieldy, technical legislation. I do not envy the Minister. I want to address the education welfare issue with regard to homeschooling. It is intuitive that all of that will be under the remit of the Department of Education. However, I am taken by and committed to the Minister's leadership of the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth and his vision, and that of the Department, in having all of those areas dealt with under one roof. I am taken by all of the moves that he has made over the past year. In some ways, it is counter-intuitive that in moving that welfare concept to the Department of Education we do not have the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, here to assure us that everything will be okay and that she will deal with the issue in the same way and with the same vision, although I have no doubt she will do so.

There are many technical provisions in this Bill. My hope is that school attendance for children will be monitored and provided for in a holistic manner. That begins with preschool. It begins with our vision, the investment we make and the programmes we put in place at preschool level, as well as at school level and in respect of homeschooling. This afternoon, many of us received an email regarding a particular case. It is not unusual that we have children with special needs and disabilities who get only a couple of hours per week in school because of a lack of SNAs or particular provisions, the particular needs of the child, or some other reason and that this is deemed to be sufficient by the system, when it is not. It is that child's right to have an education as well. There are potentials for gaps where we have different Departments, that is, the Department of Education and the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth, involved in the welfare of children and contributing to the issues as to why a child might not be fulfilling his or her potential and being given full provision when it comes to his or her education. I am a little concerned about that oversight. If Tusla is accountable to the Department of Children, Disability, Equality, Integration and Youth and to the committee that works with it, then we need to make sure there are no gaps. We may need an interdepartmental group or meeting to which the Minister commits on an annual basis to ensure that we have that holistic provision for children which he has very well articulated in the last year.

Last September, the Tusla report on school attendance detailed the attendance for the years 2017 and 2018 and we saw that the schools where students were absent for more than 20 days per year were predominantly DEIS schools in Leinster. It is shocking that more than 12% of primary school children were absent for more than 20 days. While the number in respect of secondary schools was reducing, it was increasing for primary schools. This is where the Minister's Department comes into play. It is important that in childcare we prepare children for that socialising and experience. For example, we can ensure that the First 5 vision is feeding into and being informed by the education welfare reports produced by Tusla on an annual basis. The ECCE scheme, albeit welcome, is only operational for 38 weeks of the year. We have come through a policy lab within Fine Gael on the care of the child at which this was a significant issue. Children and parents do not disappear for the remaining weeks of the year. This week, we have heard from Opposition members and the Minister that there are employees in childcare that are on unlawfully renewed fixed-term contracts each year under the ECCE scheme. Those precious weeks where the ECCE is not operational could be preschool weeks wherein children are prepared specifically for the transition to school.

I am aware of the range and impressive qualifications of the staff within the education welfare area in Tusla but are they equipped for the hidden matters that contribute to absenteeism? I am chair of a drugs task force. In discussions at that forum, the professionals talked about identifying those factors within the home that will cause school absenteeism and the chaos for children in some instances. It is important that there is an ability and skill set to detect that hidden harm and that this informs the holistic developmental and socialising of children in terms of their education and the inhibiting factors to their education. The cessation of the community childcare subvention programme funding is having a particular impact in that regard on after-school services. The Dublin 8 Afterschool Alliance has articulated well how the manner in which the 20 hours is allocated disproportionately affects the children in areas where absenteeism is very high and more likely to be an issue and that after-school support and provision may be the very thing that keeps them in school and part of that welfare package that supports those children.

I am seeking reassurance regarding the change. While it is intuitive for the welfare aspect of Tusla to be governed within the Department of Education, I lament that movement away from the vision articulated by the Minister for his Department, which he has brought to fruition in the last year and which we all continue to work to under the programme for Government.It is important to make sure that no child is being left behind or falls through the gaps, whether he or she is from a particular area or has a particular disability. I urge the Minister to attend to that.