Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The best way to answer the question is to give examples of the evaluations that have taken place. Two of these were published during the summer, namely, the review of the supply teacher scheme for primary schools and the review of the small school and permanent accommodation initiative. These reviews covered two very different areas.

It is easier to assess something like capital funding because one can see results, whereas it is not so easy to see results in other areas. The review of the small school and permanent accommodation initiative showed it provided value for money for taxpayers. The schools in the initiative got better accommodation more quickly than if they had gone through the traditional programme and acquired permanent rather than temporary accommodation. The funding control mechanisms were found effective and school management authorities were satisfied. It was easy, therefore, to assess that initiative.

The review of the supply teacher initiative concluded the scheme generally contributes positively to primary education in the areas in which it operates, though levels of success vary. The scheme was found to be relatively expensive in terms of cost per day of substitution, but that had to be balanced with other educational and policy issues. The review concluded that the effective provision of quality substitution would need a mixed market approach to supply the teacher scheme agency supplying casual substitution. This is valuable information for future policy direction. We know now we should not just take one route on the supply teacher scheme but that we need to have a balance. The review, therefore, identified a particular issue of value to us.

The DEIS scheme arose from the evaluation of existing schemes which were deemed too disparate and not sufficiently concentrated. This led directly into policy.

Deputy Enright mentioned she was interested in Youthreach. Some of the reviews under way include a review of the youth encounter projects, the schools ICT support services and the ICT undergraduate skills programme. New reviews proposed are a review of Youthreach, senior Travellers training centres, teacher education and school insurance arrangements. A range of reviews is being undertaken to establish the initiatives we will use for the next couple of years. These reviews look at education from the point of view of people and the buildings involved and at various other areas.

I accept the Deputy's point that we need to be able to evaluate the results of these initiatives. That is the aim of this project. We used only look at things in the context of the inputs we made, but now we also look at the results. These types of reviews will help us to determine future policy.

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