FORTHCOMING legislation will establish the first nationwide school attendance service, the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Mr Currie, has said.
Under current legislation dating back to 1926, school attendance officers operate in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. In the rest of the country, the Garda has responsibility for truancy.
Mr Currie told the Dail Committee on Social Affairs yesterday that new school attendance legislation would be published, possibly before the summer.
This would extend the existing school attendance service to the rest of the country.
The work of a task force set up to implement last year's report on truancy was well advanced, he said. It would not publish a separate report but its work would be incorporated into the legislation.
Responding to questions from TDs on the problems of truancy, Mr Currie confessed that in his own day, he too had "mitched".
"I used to head off in the morning with my bag and come back at 4 p.m. without ever getting to school. But I didn't do it too often. I was too fond of football. "Nowadays, the situation is different. A parent may say that a child is needed at home. Or it may be that a child stays at home out of humanitarian concern for a parent addicted to drugs or alcohol."
Children who were not attending school were starting their lives with a serious disadvantage, he said.
Children also had more opportunities to get involved in crime. For this reason, it was surprising that no previous Minister had tackled the problem.
Mr Chris Flood, Fianna Fail, said school principals in his area in Dublin South West were concerned to see the recommendations of the truancy report implemented. They were also disappointed that nothing had yet been done about the problem.
The Minister for Education told the committee that spending on education this year would amount to £2.2 billion, an increase of more than £100 million over last year.
Ms Breathnach said her education policies were succeeding.
The number of unqualified school leavers had dropped from 3,300 to 2,200 in recent years. The proportion of students staying on for the Leaving Cert had risen from 73 per cent to 80 per cent.
An additional 16,400 students had gone on to third level studies.
