Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

-----at all times in these schools in order to cover sick leave absences which may or may not arise.

The supply teacher scheme will cease from the start of the 2010-2011 school year. It is expected that this will save €400,000 in 2010 and €1.1 million in a full year. The teachers concerned will be redeployed in accordance with the existing redeployment arrangements to other schools that have vacancies.

It is recognised that the majority of schools in Ireland may include among their pupils children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In general, most schools are equipped to support the individual needs of such children without recourse to supplementary targeted resources. Evidence shows, however, that when disadvantage levels are found in significant concentrations, schools will require additional supports to supplement their efforts to address the educational needs of all their pupils.

Delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, is the Department of Education and Science's action plan for educational inclusion. It provides for a standardised system in identifying levels of disadvantage and for an integrated school support programme. The process of identifying schools for participation in DEIS was managed by the Educational Research Centre on behalf of the Department and was supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the inspectorate. There are currently 881 schools in DEIS. These comprise 679 primary schools, which include 200 urban band 1 schools, 145 urban band 2 schools and 334 rural schools, and 202 second level schools.

The main focus of social inclusion measures continues to 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, which are set out in his report of 2006 on primary disadvantage. The basis of those recommendations is that the Department should focus its educational disadvantage measures on those schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.

I again thank the Deputy for raising this matter.

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