David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for taking this Commencement motion himself. I tabled this motion after meeting a number of school completion programme, SCP, co-ordinators in Waterford city in recent weeks. They have been lobbying elected representatives from all parties and none on cuts to the SCP over recent years. This programme was established in 2002 to have a significant positive impact on retention levels in primary and secondary schools and the number of pupils who successfully complete the senior cycle or equivalent. All the studies show that the SCP programme has had very positive results, that more people are completing both the junior and leaving certificates and that more people are seeing through their time in primary school, which is positive.

There have been cuts to these programmes in recent years, however, which are having a direct impact on the services that the programme co-ordinators are in place to provide. At the moment, surveys of SPCs are taking place throughout the State which seek to ascertain the impact these budget cuts have had to date in the running of individual programmes. Some of the initial feedback I have seen reveals trends in the following areas: reductions to or cutting of specific supports and interventions, reductions to project workers hours, redundancies, instances of project workers and local co-ordinators finding themselves forced to take unpaid leave to maintain service provision within the allocated budget.Also, programme co-ordinators note that preventative interventions have suffered as a result of cutbacks to funding while the demand for administrative procedures has increased exponentially since the SCP was reassigned to the Child and Family Agency support called Tusla. In recent years, SCPs have been requested to desist from offering counselling by the funding agency. However, crisis situations have arisen in schools, particularly threatened suicide, where SCP has been requested by schools to provide counselling urgently. There seems to be very real issues of concern. I am sure that many co-ordinators of SCPs from across the State have been in contact with the Minister's office to express their concern about budget cutbacks.

The reason I tabled this motion is twofold. First, I wanted to get information from the Minister about the levels of funding which have gone into SCP programmes in Waterford city and county over the past three years so that we can look at the trends and at where cuts have taken place. Second, I wanted to impress upon him the impact such cuts have had on the SCP programmes. If we want to maintain the very successful figures the SCPs have been part of achieving in retaining people in primary education, then we need to maintain the levels of funding. If we cut back on funding we may drift backwards in terms of the success of the projects and programmes.

I appeal to the Minister to listen to what the co-ordinators who work on the ground have said. I hope he is in a position to make a statement on his future intentions for this programme, and that of the Government, to fund these programmes into the future.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The school completion programme aims to retain young people in the formal education system to completion of senior cycle and to generally improve the school attendance, participation and retention of its target cohort. It is a targeted intervention aimed at those school communities, identified through the DEIS action plan for educational inclusion run by the Department of Education and Skills. It involves 124 locally managed projects and related initiatives operating across 470 primary and 224 post-primary schools to provide targeted supports to approximately 36,000 children and young people.

Since 1 January 2014, the Child and Family Agency has operational responsibility for the school completion programme, including the allocation of funds to local projects. In 2014, an allocation of €24.756 million has been provided for the school completion programme.

The programme is one of three service strands within the continuum of education welfare service being implemented by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, to support children, their families and schools. The other service strands are the home-school-community liaison scheme and the Educational Welfare Service.

Three school completion programme projects operate across Waterford city and county, namely, Waterford SCP which encompasses Ballybeg Community Education Project, Na Siúire SCP and Dungarvan SCP. Between the three projects, they were allocated €775,380 for the academic year 2011-12, €724,933 in 2012-13, €698,904 in 2013-14, and €635,000 in 2014-15.

The agency has approved local projects' school retention plans for the 2014-15 academic year. The amount provided for 2014-15 for the school completion programme takes account of the savings requirements in the comprehensive review of expenditure 2012-14. The first two instalments of the 2014-15 funding have issued to local projects, with a third instalment planned for May 2015.

The estimate for the Child and Family Agency for 2015 is €635 million which is a 4.3% increase on its 2014 allocation. My Department has recently issued a performance statement to the agency under section 45 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. This includes my priorities for consideration in the development of the agency's 2015 business plan.

The business plan will set out the agency's proposed activities, programmes and priorities for 2015, including provision for the school completion programme in light of the moneys available. I have advised the agency of my commitment to ensuring that there is no diminution in the school completion programme services.

A review of the school completion programme is under way. It is being carried out by the ESRI and will include a review of the governance and delivery structures of the programme. The review will assist in identifying the reforms necessary to consolidate the programme on a sustainable footing for the future.

The review will, among other things, examine the structures of the school completion programme, and how they can best support an integrated approach to address early school leaving. It will analyse the interventions provided and make recommendations for evidence informed supports designed to secure the best educational outcomes for young people.

The review will capture the views of a range of stakeholders, including staff and all those involved in the organisation and administration of the school completion programme. It includes a survey to gather the views of project co-ordinators and chairpersons of the 124 local school completion programme projects throughout the country, case studies of projects involving staff and participating schools and interviews with national stakeholders who have a direct interest in the programme.

Preliminary information gathered on the programme indicates that the school completion programme encompasses a broad and diverse range of measures and interventions that have been developed by local projects over the years. The review will aim to capture learning from the most successful of these. Another aim is to ensure that available funds are targeted at those services that provide the greatest contribution to good educational outcomes for children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage. The review is expected to be completed shortly.

David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)
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It is laudable for the Minister to advise the agency of his commitment to ensure there is no reduction in school completion programme services. The problem with his statement is that co-ordinators on the ground have said budget cuts have had an impact on services. The figures outlined by him clearly demonstrate that there has been a significant cutback in funding to these programmes in Waterford city and county. In the academic year of 2011-12 funding amounted to €775,380 but in the current year it is €635,475. That means there has been a cut in funding of over €130,000 which must have an impact on service provision. Only so much savings can be made in the overall overheads in terms of staff costs, rent, etc. When there is that level of cutbacks in funding it is the front-line services which suffer the most. That is the information that I have received from people who work on the ground.

I accept that there is a review under way. I hope the review goes well. Whatever about structural reforms that may be recommended, the Minister also needs to be conscious of the need to maintain levels of funding. He must ensure that, whatever structural changes the agency and he may put in place, the co-ordinators and programmes on the ground are in a financial position to provide the services that people need so that these projects continue to be successful into the future. I imagine that is what the Minister wants to see as well.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased that the Senator has acknowledged that these programmes work and have an impact. Of course they do not work in all cases and that is why I pointed out, in my main response to him, that we are continually reviewing to see whether we are getting the desired outcomes from our inputs. Where things are working well we want to see those replicated in other areas. Where things are not working then it is not sensible to continue with them. We need to put in place the policies, structures and services that result in the outcomes we want which is more children completing their secondary education. That is our aim because education is a great determinant of how well one does in life in terms of employment prospects and living standards.

Yes, over the fiscal crisis that we had to endure, which is one this Government inherited, there had to be some cuts made. I am happy to say that the cuts in regard to my Department have ceased and this year its budget has been increased. We have not closed any schools in the region. We have built more schools and added services in those schools. As the Senator will be aware, his party in the North of Ireland has closed over 100 schools in the past number of years.