campaigning for Travellers, the project work and on the boards of management of these Traveller organisations/groups. The remit of the Joint working group was to develop a Traveller Education Strategy for the DES and it is fair to say afforded the first real opportunity to Travellers to influence and shape the policy, design and delivery of education. In 2006 Towards a Traveller Education Strategy was published by the DES at its core is the principle of an inclusive mainstream education provision. The main objective of the strategy is to ensure equality of access, participation and outcomes for Travellers in the education Also during the development of the Traveller education strategy the three national Traveller organisations facilitated a consultation process which was carried out around the country in 2004 with over 400 Traveller learners and parents participating the findings of the consultation of which there was 49 recommendations covering a number of concerns such as access to education and outcomes from education, involvement of parents, recognition of Traveller culture, ethos of schools and segregation in the provision of education to Travellers. Critical issues to addressed for Travellers in the education system:  Access continues to pose challenges re Traveller accessing schools — give examples of a couple of high profile such as Equality Tribunal ruling and subsequent circuit court ruling in clonmel.  Equality of attainment for Travellers in the education system remains to be addressed.  Retention in the education. According to a recent DES presentation on Traveller education e currently have 8,300 Traveller pupils in primary school which equates virtually to 100% enrolment. Yet there is only 70 Traveller children (39 are Traveller girls) in there final year of Post Primary for the 2010/2011 academic year. There is a total of 448 Traveller children in first year of post primary for 2010/2011 - Retention in secondary school and transfer to third level does continue to be of major concern  We need high expectations and the negative experiences of Traveller children within the education system:  Visibility of Travellers in the education curriculum Again I would just like to stress desegregation of data is a critical issue if we are to accurately monitor the participation and achievements of Traveller women in the education system.  Data in relation to Traveller women in third level is difficult to ascertain but according to the Mature Student Ireland in 2010 8 Travellers were participating in their institutions as mature students — they did not have a gender breakdown of this figure.