Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I will reply on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin. I hope the reply will clarify the matters raised by Deputy Cowley.

As the Deputy is aware, the school has not been told it will lose any of the resources it has been in receipt of under the breaking the cycle scheme. The school has simply not been selected for inclusion in a new school support programme, which is aimed at providing even more resources for the most disadvantaged schools in the country. The Minister for Education and Science has, however, made it very clear that Crossmolina national school will keep the extra resources it receives under existing schemes for the 2006-07 school year and that after that it will continue to get support in line with the level of disadvantage among its pupils.

The new DEIS programme will be of huge benefit to schools in Mayo. This particular school has not been selected for the programme but I am sure the Deputy will agree that it is important to make sure that schools serving the most disadvantaged communities get all the extra support possible, and that he will welcome the extra resources that DEIS will provide for Mayo schools.

An extremely fair process was put in place to identify schools for inclusion in the new programme, with schools being selected by the Education Research Centre for inclusion on the basis of questionnaires filled in by their principals. There was no ministerial interference with that process.

DEIS is designed to ensure that schools serving the most disadvantaged communities in the country benefit from the maximum level of support available. Over the years, no less than eight separate schemes for disadvantaged primary schools have been put in place. Some schools benefited from just one or two of these and others benefited from more. The DEIS initiative is designed to ensure that the most disadvantaged schools benefit from a comprehensive package of supports, while ensuring that others continue to get support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils.

No school has been told that it will lose resources. On the contrary, four urban or town primary schools, 59 rural primary schools and six second level schools in County Mayo alone have been invited to benefit from all the resources available from the new programme. Indeed, nearly 20% of all the rural schools invited to benefit from the new programme nationally are in Mayo.

I assure the Deputy that there is no reason for schools that have not been identified for the new programme to worry, as they will continue to get support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils. Neither Crossmolina nor any other school in Mayo has been told that it will lose resources as a result of DEIS.

A review mechanism has been put in place to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in the school support programme but regard themselves as having a level of disadvantage which is of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. This mechanism will operate under the direction of an independent person, charged with ensuring that all relevant identification processes and procedures were properly followed in the case of schools applying for a review. The school to which the Deputy refers has submitted a review request. It is intended that the review process be completed by the end of the current school year.

The Minister thanks Deputy Cowley for raising this matter and for giving her the opportunity to outline the Government's support for schools serving disadvantaged communities in Mayo.

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