Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I beg the Minister's pardon.

The school completion programme, first introduced by a Fianna Fáil Government in 2002, has been identified as a model of best practice by the EU and the OECD as a targeted programme that increases retention rates in schools and reduces educational disadvantage. Unfortunately, under the current Government the programme has not received adequate recognition, support or funding. It was moved from the Department of Education and Skills, where it was initially set up within the social inclusion unit as part of the DEIS programme, to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs when that Department was established. Since then it has been moved to Tusla, very much removed from the Department under whose remit it should be, as an educational intervention, and in which it could be properly co-ordinated.

As the Minister is aware, the aim of the programme is to retain young people in the formal education system to complete senior cycle and to improve attendance and participation rates throughout primary and secondary school. It is involved with 124 projects across the country in 470 primary schools and 220 post-primary schools, which is almost one third of our secondary schools. Over the last number of years, the programme has seen a 25% reduction in its budget. That has put significant pressure on school completion programmes as regards continuing the range of activities they had been providing and ensuring they are well placed to continue making inroads into school completion and educational outcomes. Many of the key extra-curricular programmes, including those at holiday times, have had to be curtailed.

There is much concern at this stage about the future plans for the school completion programme within Tusla. There is no certainty about what the budget will be for the next academic year starting in September. The plans normally issued in February have not yet been issued by Tusla for submission by the school completion programmes. A real issue of concern is what the plans are for next year and subsequent years.

I ask the Minister for a number of commitments. Will he commit, as Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, to enter discussions with the Minister for Education and Skills with a view to putting the school completion programme back where it is best served and best placed, which is the Department of Education and Skills? Will he also commit to supporting the expansion of the programme? It has been identified as being successful, most recently in an ESRI review of the DEIS programme. Will he commit to expanding further this successful model? Will he also commit to implementing no further cuts to the school completion programme in the academic year starting this coming September?

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