Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has raised several issues and I have undertaken to come back to him with information on those which I cannot answer at present. The information on religion, ethnicity and culture is collected on an optional consent basis. I am not sure whether the Deputy is aware of this. Information on religion is collected solely for statistical purposes, and the data collected on ethnicity and cultural background will allow us to determine the effect of targeted education interventions on Traveller education or education for non-Irish who need more support. It is for genuine use in planning resources and directing additional capitation grant funds to schools which need them. The Deputy is sensible enough to know there is a reason for collecting information, which is to be able to plan and put in place resources. One can see the benefits of using proper data in school planning in recent years. This was not done in the past and schools popped up at the whim of certain Deputies or Ministers, which is not the proper way to run the system. Our education system has suffered in the past from a lack of proper planning. One needs to collect data to be able to plan and that is what this is about.

The reason the information will be kept until people are aged 30 is because it will be part of their personal history which people will want to use. We often go to schools for information from past roll books with regard to who was there. I believe it is causing concern and we probably need to bring more clarity to it.

With regard to capitation grants, with the best will in the world the old system often had duplication. We hope this will not happen in the new system and we will be able to have greater and clearer allocation of resources.

I will come back to the Deputy on the other issues he raised.

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