John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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331. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the geographic areas in Wicklow the three educational welfare officers in Tusla cover; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31395/25]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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332. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there is currently an educational welfare officer employed by Tusla which covers the area of north Wicklow; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31396/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 331 and 332 together.

Tusla Education Support Service (TESS), which includes the statutory Educational Welfare Service (EWS), is under the remit of my department since 2021.

The primary role of the EWS is to ensure that every child either attends school regularly or otherwise receives a certain minimum education; to ensure and secure every child’s entitlement to education. Educational welfare officers (EWOs) are based throughout the country and work with children, young people and their families who are experiencing difficulty with school attendance. This is done through, home visits, educational welfare conferences and collaboratively working with different agencies. The main priority of the work is around the educational welfare of children and young people and to ensure that concerns around attendance are addressed before attendance becomes a crisis issue.

I can advise the Deputy that, following a successful national EWO recruitment campaign, there are now four educational welfare officers (EWOs) allocated to Co. Wicklow. EWOs are assigned to North Wicklow, Mid East Wicklow, South East Wicklow and West Wicklow.