The body charged with ensuring all children receive an education is intervening in just 10 per cent of cases referred to it, its chief executive has said.
Eddie Ward, of the National Education and Welfare Board (NEWB), said "there is no doubt" some children are not going to school at all. Mr Ward was speaking at the publication yesterday of a leaflet for parents outlining their obligations to ensure their children get an education.
He said that despite a recent Government commitment to increase the number of education welfare officers from 94 to 109, there were still counties with no welfare officer at all.
"They would be counties Leitrim, Cavan and Roscommon. We still say we need 300 officers and I know there are children not getting an education that we are not reaching.
"When you take it that we had 84,000 children referred to us at national level in 2005 and we dealt with 8,500 cases, that is quite a number we cannot follow up on." If a pupil misses more than 20 days a year the school is obliged to report the fact to the board.
Mr Ward said he had no doubt there was a "small number of children in very dire circumstances that have not come to the attention of social services at all" and that were not receiving an education.
"It is very frustrating for us and for the schools. They say, 'Well we're doing our bit reporting the children we're concerned about. Why isn't the State doing its bit?'"
There was a growing awareness of the issue of absenteeism but officers were coming across pockets in acutely deprived areas where an alarming number of children were absent regularly or not making the transition from primary to post-primary. He gave a recent example of a girl in Dublin, "aged about eight", whose attendance at primary school was patchy.
"With great persistence the welfare officer finally managed to get an answer at the door of her home late one evening and it turned out the mother had addiction issues and was not getting up until late in the evening. This child was really looking after herself all day."
