A report by the National Education Welfare Board (NEWB), which was sent to the Department of Finance prior to the most recent budget, and which has been seen by the Sunday Tribune, states clearly that the body has not got sufficient resources at present to meet the needs of children in disadvantaged areas.

The submission states that the board is facing the prospect of functioning only as a "fire-fighting service" and is hampered in its ability to mount a proactive and prevention-focused service, as envisaged in the Education (Welfare) Act 2000.

NEWB staff face mounting difficulties with the issue of school absenteeism in the poorest areas of Dublin and in other urban centres, fueling growing problems of antisocial behaviour.

"Staff struggle to meet the demands of the most disadvantaged areas, " according to the submission made by senior staff at the NEWB. In the poorest urban areas in parts of Finglas and north-west Dublin, the average number of days spent absent from primary school is 17. This contrasts dramatically with the nationwide average number of 10 days per pupil.

The submission points to the low number of staff employed as Education Welfare Officers (EWO), who monitor levels of absenteeism in schools nationwide. The ratio of EWOs to school population is "significantly below the international norms", the submission states.

Twenty-two board officers in the Dublin city area had to deal with 2,616 new cases of absenteeism in 2005. Both the north and south Leinster areas have 14 EWO staff each and dealt with over 4,000 cases, combined, in 2005.

The NEWB, which has been in operation since 2002, currently has 114 staff and is seeking funding for an additional 50 staff from the Department of Education. The body requires 360 staff to function fully and provide the service which is set out in the Children's Act of 2001. At present, there is no service provided to a number of areas around the country.

Despite the significant under-resourcing of the board, it has resolved over 20,000 cases involving students with reported attendance difficulties since 2004. It has also maintained a Lo Call Education Helpline for parents and schools which received over 5,000 calls last year.

Labour TD Roisin Shortall, who regularly deals with constituents in Dublin experiencing educational disadvantage, told the Sunday Tribune that "the big problem" in many parts of northwest Dublin is the high rate of children leaving school early as a result of absenteeism and poor attendance.

She says that the growing difficulties with drug-use and anti-social crime in these disadvantaged Dublin areas are a result of "many housing estates that are soulless and deprived, and as a result young people see no future.

"We are now paying the consequences for years of under investment and we have reached a situation where the rule of law no longer applies, " she said. "We allowed ghettos to develop and there is now a climate of lawlessness".