Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

The schools to which the Deputy refers are among those that were judged by an independent identification process in 2005 not to have a sufficient level of disadvantage among their pupils to warrant their inclusion in DEIS, the action plan for educational inclusion. The next identification process is scheduled to be held at the end of the current DEIS programme, which runs from 2005 to 2010. There will not be an opportunity before this for inclusion in the current DEIS programme of supports.

A review mechanism was put in place in 2006 to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in DEIS, but which regarded themselves as having a level of disadvantage that was of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The review process operated under the direction of an independent person, charged with ensuring that all relevant identification procedures were properly followed in the case of schools applying for a review. The review was concluded and the results were notified to schools in August 2006. The four schools in question applied for a review at that time but they were unsuccessful in qualifying for inclusion in DEIS.

The schools involved retained resources, including additional capitation and a shared rural co-ordinator post under pre-existing schemes and programmes for addressing educational disadvantage. Following the introduction of DEIS, a commitment was given, as a concessionary measure to non-DEIS schools in receipt of such resources, that they would retain a level of support in line with their size and disadvantage levels for the duration of the DEIS initiative.

It is appreciated that the discontinuation of these resources will impact on the schools concerned. However given the current volatile and challenging economic climate, difficult decisions had to be made in the 2009 budget in order to contain public sector spending. One of these decisions was to advance the withdrawal of such supports from non-DEIS schools to the beginning of the next school year.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The main focus of social inclusion measures will be to retain resources in DEIS schools. There is a need to focus targeted resources on the schools in most need and this approach is in line with the broad thrust of the recommendations of the Comptroller and Auditor General. These are set out in his report on primary disadvantage in 2006, which recommended that my Department should focus its educational disadvantage measures on those schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.

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