Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Kitt for raising this issue and I acknowledge the work he did as a Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. I will reply to him on behalf of the Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe, and the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey.

The Deputy is aware that a number of difficult decisions have had to be taken with regard to the management of the public finances. In this regard, education, while a priority for the Government, could not be completely spared. These decisions included the decision to discontinue the funding the Department made available to local authorities to support school library services. The priority of budgets since October 2008 has been to provide as much as possible of available resources directly to schools. Unfortunately, it was not possible in this context to continue to provide funding, which in 2008 amounted to just over €2 million, to local authorities to support school library services.

The Minister strongly believes in the importance of encouraging reading. Literacy is an essential life skill through which children access all areas of the curriculum. Educational policy places a central emphasis on ensuring that the needs of children with literacy difficulties are identified and addressed early. Standardised testing in English reading and mathematics has been introduced for all children at two stages of the primary cycle, and a range of intervention measures are provided in the form of professional development of teachers, provision of learning support, and additional supports for children with learning disabilities.

Under the DEIS strategy additional teaching and non-pay funds are provided to schools designated as disadvantaged and there are three specific projects. The reading recovery programme is a school-based early intervention programme designed to reduce literacy problems in schools. It provides intensive individual help for children who have not responded to the standard instructional programme in reading and writing after one year in school. A total of 228 DEIS schools are now included in the reading recovery programme, with 54 of these included in 2009-10 school year. An additional 2,017 children are being taught throughout Ireland in 2009-10, bringing the total to 6,908 to date since the programme was introduced in 2001. It is expected that 550 teachers in total will have been trained in this programme by June 2010.

The first steps initiative is a research-based literacy resource including professional development courses and support materials for primary teachers. The overarching aim of first steps is to support schools as they help all children make measurable and observable progress in language and literacy development. Teacher-training in first steps will continue. There are a number of strands to the first steps programme; the three being introduced to urban DEIS schools are first steps writing, first steps reading and first steps speaking and listening. A total of 332 DEIS schools are now included in the first steps programme. This roll-out will continue in 2010.

The junior certificate school programme, JCSP, literacy strategy promotes a whole-school approach to literacy development at junior cycle. The JCSP literacy strategy encourages schools to involve all subject teachers in adopting specific techniques in teaching the literacy demands of their subject areas. A between the lines literacy handbook and training video were produced and distributed to schools in 2002 and they form the basis of the teacher training. The JCSP demonstration library project began in 2001 and school libraries were established initially in ten schools. The libraries are staffed by full-time qualified librarians. A total of 25 DEIS schools are included in the demonstration library project. I again thank Deputy Kitt for raising this matter.

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