Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. She has outlined clearly, comprehensively and positively the very many beneficial outcomes of the school completion programme. There is absolutely no doubt that, no matter what political party we are in or what side of the House we are on, reducing school failure and improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged students has to be a key priority for every one of us. It is a bit of an anomaly that this scheme lies within the Minister's Department as it is very closely related to education issues. We need to do better to ensure that all sections of our communities can more fully reap the benefits of our education plans. I certainly think that the school completion plan should be available to non-DEIS schools as well as DEIS schools.

On the funding cuts which I mentioned earlier, while I accept they were before the Minister's time, there has been a substantial cut in funding. In 2010, funding was €30 million and it was down to €24.7 million last year. There has been €5 million cut. Will the Minister fight to get that funding back in to the school completion programme?

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