The group charged with dealing with truancy and drop-out levels from schools is being starved of proper funding, according to Labour and Fine Gael yesterday.
Labour's education spokeswoman, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, has called on the Government to provide €25 million in the Budget to the National Education Welfare Board (NEWB).
She said the board "needs this money . . . to protect some of the most vulnerable children throughout the country, who do not attend school regularly or fail to complete their education".
The board requires about 300 education welfare officers (formerly school attendance officers) to meet its obligation under the Education Act. But, at present, it has only 70.
Ms O'Sullivan said: "It is an absolute scandal that in modern Ireland children as young as 11 drop-out of school. The gardaí no longer have the power to act, and the system to address this cannot function until the board has enough welfare officers. If \ Noel Dempsey wants to back up his oft repeated claim about tackling educational disadvantage, then he must commit resources."
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, the Fine Gael education spokeswoman, Ms Olwyn Enright, said the board is finding it extremely difficult to do its job. It had been "crippled by a lack of funding", she said. "Yet when we raise the issue of truancy, of school drop-out rates, of young people leaving the education system before they are legally entitled to do so, the Minister responds that the board has statutory responsibility."
In its recent pre-Budget submission, the NEWB said the "continued failure by the Government to meet the immediate needs of the children and families entitled to the board's services would impact heavily on the State and society in the long term". According to its chief executive, Mr Eddie Ward, a "save now, pay later" policy simply wouldn't work.