Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

This Government is committed to doing everything it can to improve literacy levels in disadvantaged areas. We are conscious of the fact that good levels of literacy and numeracy are fundamental prerequisites for full educational and social participation, and we are redoubling our efforts to promote these.

A key underlying principle of DEIS, the action plan for educational inclusion, is that of early intervention. It focuses on identifying and assisting children who are having difficulty with reading and writing at an early stage with the aim of preventing literacy difficulties from becoming entrenched. Children in DEIS schools that are identified as having major reading difficulties will be targeted early to benefit from intensive, individualised literacy tuition through the reading recovery programme. This programme, under which each child can be provided with 2.5 hours of extra reading tuition a week, has been extremely positively received since its introduction a few years ago. The number of schools participating in the programme has already been doubled from 66 in 2004 to 136 in 2006. Access to reading recovery is being rolled out to all the more than 330 urban primary schools participating in DEIS.

Children with writing difficulties in these schools will also be targeted for extra support through the roll-out of the first steps programme to all urban primary DEIS schools.

Taken together, the expansion of these two programmes, will significantly improve the service available to children with literacy difficulties in disadvantaged areas. These measures will also be augmented by other extra supports being put in place under DEIS, such as smaller classes at primary level, an expansion of the home school community liaison scheme, a new initiative on pre-service and in-service professional development for teachers and more school libraries at second level.

There will be a much greater focus on target setting and planning under DEIS to ensure that the substantial extra resources being provided will lead to better outcomes for children. As well as improving the supports we provide in our schools, initiatives that help parents with any literacy problems they may have themselves can have a hugely positive effect on their children's achievement. For this reason, the establishment of a new family literacy project is also a key priority under the DEIS programme. The project will build on previous experience in this area and will be based on a partnership approach involving the VEC adult literacy services, home school community liaison teachers and the National Adult Literacy Agency.

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In this context, the Government has dramatically improved the level of provision for adult literacy training in recent years. Indeed, expenditure on adult literacy has increased more than twentyfold since we came into office, from €1 million in 1997 to €23 million in 2006. As a result of this dramatic increase in funding, we have been able to expand the number of people receiving adult literacy training, to the point where 35,000 people will receive a service in 2006.

I believe this unprecedented level of investment in adult literacy services will not only bring major benefits for the adults but will make a positive difference to their children's lives. Helping a parent to be able to read to their child could be one of the best things that we, as a Government, can do for both parent and child.

As I have outlined, not only has the Government done a great deal in recent years to improve the literacy levels of children and adults from disadvantaged areas but we are currently redoubling our efforts so that further progress can be made. I am confident that, taken together, the initiatives I have outlined will ensure a much greater level of support for children with literacy difficulties and that achievement will improve considerably as a result.

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