Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Browne for raising this matter. I can confirm my Department provided funding of €40,000 to the Meitheal programme in December 2011. The Meitheal programme has not received any funding from the Department since that date. The programme previously was allocated funding through the fund for the development of targeted educational responses to certain children at risk between 2000, the millennium year, and 2010. This source of funding was discontinued following a decision in budget 2009. The programme received funding as an interim measure in December 2010 and, as I stated, it also received funding in December 2011 as an exceptional measure to allow for the period up to the end of the 2011-12 school year.

As has been noted, the Meitheal programme began in 1997 as a pilot scheme at CBS secondary school in New Ross. It is a training programme for students at senior level in secondary schools. In this programme, students are trained to become mentors for incoming students at junior level. It is a programme based on peer respect between students and one that enables students to take responsibility for the happiness of others and for the safety and well-being of all who share a school environment. The programme is advertised among senior students who are invited to become Meitheal leaders in their respective schools. All applicants are interviewed and a selection is then made. The students who are chosen to become Meitheal leaders undergo a training programme in the summer prior to their return to school the following September. This training programme covers a number of areas including personal development, identity, self-esteem, communication skills, listening skills, assertiveness skills, group dynamics and group management. After their training, the students return to their respective schools as sixth-year students and each is given responsibility for a number of incoming first-year students.

The Meitheal programme works with 21 post-primary schools in County Wexford. Of these 21 post-primary schools, eight currently are participating in the DEIS programme. I must tell the Deputy and other Members that at a time of severely reduced resources, priorities must be decided, and the Department continues to target enhanced resources to the disadvantaged under its DEIS programme and to pupils with special needs. As the Meitheal programme mainly operates within non-DEIS schools, it simply is not possible to provide financial support, as funding is prioritised to other areas.

The programme was evaluated by the evaluation support and research unit of the Department in conjunction with the inspectorate of the regional directorate in 2009. While the evaluation was positive towards the programme in its findings, the discontinuation of the fund for the development of targeted educational responses to certain children at risk, together with the requirement to achieve significant budgetary targets to bring public expenditure down to a sustainable level, mean that no funding strand is available for the Meitheal programme. Meitheal was advised in January 2012 that no further funding could be made to the programme due to the discontinuation of the children at risk fund.

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