Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of the report to which the Deputy refers, the scope of which reflects the wide variety of factors that are central to tackling educational disadvantage. The DEIS action plan is designed to provide children and young people from socio-economically disadvantaged areas with a comprehensive package of extra supports. DEIS represents a shift in emphasis away from individual initiatives, each addressing a particular aspect of the problem and adopts a multifaceted and more integrated approach. Greater cross-departmental and interagency co-operation is also prioritised to ensure a joined-up approach to the provision of services for children at risk.

With the roll-out of the DEIS action plan, many of the issues raised in this publication are being addressed, including early education, transition from primary to second level, the role of the family and community, literacy and numeracy, attendance and early school leaving, teacher retention and development, and so on.

Just some of the wide range of extra supports being targeted at children in the most disadvantaged areas include the following: special literacy and numeracy programmes with intensive extra tuition to help pupils with difficulties at an early stage; smaller classes; after-school and holiday time supports, including homework clubs and summer camps; extra funding for school books schemes; and school meals.

I am also conscious of the positive impact that working with parents in disadvantaged areas can have on their children's progress. Therefore, the home-school-community liaison scheme has been extended, and a new family literacy initiative is being developed in co-operation with the National Adult Literacy Agency and other partners.

This comprehensive package of extra support for children and their parents will improve attainment levels. I know the scale of the challenges facing children and young people in disadvantaged areas but I am confident that they can be overcome. Even before the DEIS plan was put in place there was evidence that the extra investment in social inclusion measures made by the Government between 1997 and 2005 had made a difference. By 2005, some 85.8% of Irish 20-24 year olds had attained upper second-level education or equivalent, up from 82.6% in 2000 and putting Ireland way ahead of the EU average of 77.5%.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Deputy Catherine Byrne to the House and I note her interest in disadvantaged education. She put her finger on the matter when she referred to homework clubs and the provision of basic reading materials to improve literacy. One of the main objectives of our disadvantage plan is to target literacy and numeracy, not just in the context of smaller class sizes but also with programmes such as First Steps, which is for junior infants, as well as focused programmes like maths recovery and reading recovery. I have watched teachers being trained in this sector on a one-to-one basis and great progress has been made as a result of these developments. I am sure the Deputy will be glad that children in the homework club are reading newspapers as they will be up to date on current affairs.

In a community context, children in disadvantaged schools cannot reach their potential or attain the same standards as others if we do not have the support of their families. The family literacy programme, which started this year, is an integral part of DEIS. We are targeting parents to include them in the same manner as we do with the home-school-community liaison programme. In that way, we will have a better chance not only of keeping children in school but also of improving their literacy levels.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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As Deputy Byrne has already pointed out, one of the report's recommendations is to remove the term "disadvantaged" from our vocabulary when dealing with educational issues. Does the Minister have a view on that?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I deliberately avoided using the term "disadvantaged" to label the new programme. It is called DEIS, which is delivering equality of opportunity in schools. It is all about opportunity. The word "deis" is the Irish word for opportunity, so I took it in that context. I particularly wanted to use a word that is not an acronym, because the education sector is full of acronyms. I am sure Deputy Hayes could spend from now until Christmas trying to get his head around what they all stand for.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I am trying to.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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That was the idea of using the word "deis". Principals now state that their schools are in the DEIS scheme, whereas in the past they used to say the schools were in the disadvantaged scheme. That labelling has certainly disappeared from our perspective.