Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 49: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the funding allocated to the National Educational Welfare Board for 2006; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13348/06]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will provide the necessary resources to the National Educational Welfare Board in order that it can carry out its statutory duty under the Education Welfare Act 2000; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13503/06]

Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 60: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the distribution of education welfare officers on a county basis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13346/06]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 68: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of education welfare officers employed by the National Educational Welfare Board; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13350/06]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 49, 57, 60 and 68 together.

The National Educational Welfare Board was established under the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 as the single national body with responsibility for school attendance. The Act provides a comprehensive framework promoting regular school attendance and tackling the problems of absenteeism and early school leaving. The general functions of the board are to ensure that each child attends a recognised school or otherwise receives a certain minimum education.

The budget allocated to the NEWB for 2006 is €8.15 million, which represents an increase of nearly 11% on the 2005 expenditure and 25% on 2004.

To discharge its responsibilities, the board is developing a nationwide service on a continuing basis that is accessible to schools, parents-guardians and others concerned with the welfare of young people. For this purpose, educational welfare officers, EWOs, have been 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 total authorised staffing complement of the board is 94 comprising 16 HQ and support staff, five regional managers, 12 senior educational welfare officers and 61 educational welfare officers. In deploying its service staff, the National Educational Welfare Board has prioritised the provision of services to the most disadvantaged areas and most at-risk groups. Five regional teams are in place with bases in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford and staff have been deployed in areas of greatest disadvantage and in areas designated under the Government's RAPID programme providing an intensive full level of service. For all remaining areas the NEWB deploy their staff on a regional basis providing various levels of service.

Towns which have an educational welfare officer allocated to them include Dundalk, Drogheda, Navan, Athlone, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Bray, Clonmel, Tralee, Ennis, Sligo, Naas, Castlebar, Longford, Tuam, Tullamore, Letterkenny and Portlaoise. In addition, the board will follow up on urgent cases nationally where children are not currently receiving an education. Since September 2005 every county in Ireland is served by an educational welfare service.

Within the education sector, in addition to the NEWB personnel, some 490 staff are deployed in education disadvantage programmes whose work involves a school attendance element. My Department is anxious to ensure that the maximum benefit is derived from these substantial personnel resources. Consequently, work is ongoing to develop appropriate protocols for integrated working between the different services involved.

I will be keeping the issue of the NEWB's staffing under review in the light of the rollout of services and in the context of Government policy on public service numbers.