Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The school completion programme, which was launched in 2002, incorporates the learning, experience and best practice derived from previous early school leaving initiatives, namely, the eight to 15 early school leaver initiative and the stay in school retention initiative. The programme is a key component of the Department's strategy to discriminate positively in favour of children and young people who are at risk of early school leaving and it is based on an integrated cross-community approach to tackling educational disadvantage, involving 82 projects in 21 counties. There are currently 300 primary schools and 112 second level schools participating in the school completion programme. Approximately 15,000 pupils were targeted by the school completion programme in the 2003-04 school year.

The Giving Children an Even Break programme was launched in 2001 to tackle educational disadvantage at primary level. Primary schools participating are in receipt of a range of additional supports, including teacher posts and other non-teaching supports to be targeted at disadvantaged pupils. A total of 2,345 primary schools are participating in this programme, covering a spectrum ranging from highly concentrated to very dispersed levels of disadvantage. Financial support is allocated to schools on a sliding scale, and schools with greater proportions of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are allocated proportionately more funding than those with fewer numbers of such pupils.

The majority of the 412 schools in the school completion programme, and more than 100 of the most disadvantaged primary schools participating in the Giving Children an Even Break programme, operate some level of breakfast or other meal provision, in accordance with the nutritional guidelines issued by the Department of Social and Family Affairs. In addition to being able to use funding, the provision of school meals is primarily funded by the school meals programme, administered by the Department of Social and Family Affairs, and involving both an urban scheme operated by 36 participating local authorities and a local projects scheme.

The school meals programme aims to supplement the nutritional intake of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in order to allow them to fulfil their potential within the educational system and to reduce the risk of early school leaving. Some 41,000 children benefited in 450 schools under the local projects scheme and the urban scheme provided support for more than 380 primary schools and 51,000 pupils. The Department of Social and Family Affairs has provided funding of €6.38 million for the programme.

We will continue to ensure that the resources available are used to best effect to further expand school meal provisions in schools serving disadvantaged communities.

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