Dan Boyle (Green Party)
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I have just realised the distance to here from the extremities of Agriculture House is about the same as from Trinity College. My Adjourment matter is quite simple. The community of Togher on the south-western side of Cork city is known to be disadvantaged but not uniformly so. It is a community which straddles the city and county boundaries separated by the Tramore river. Some key community facilities such as the church, the youth drop-in centre and, most crucially, Togher boys' national school are on the county side of the river. A decision was made recently to redesignate the school as not being a DEIS school. I have tabled this Adjournment Matter to seek information on why this decision was made and when and if it can be reconsidered.

The other part of Togher includes a key piece of community infrastructure, namely, St. Finbarr's National Hurling and Football Club, adjacent to which is a very large local authority estate, Deanrock, in which many people experience a lower standard of living and many of the key people availing of important initiatives in terms of poverty alleviation through RAPID programmes and the existence of DEIS schools can be found. Many children from the area attend the school to which I refer. In addition, the school offers tuition to no fewer than 23 nationalities.

An arbitrary decision has been made, on the basis of geography, which takes no account of the sociological make-up of the school and the value of the work it has been doing. While the Minister of State may not be in a position to respond fully to this matter, I hope a process can begin whereby the decision can be reconsidered. There are not many communities or schools in the area in which I live and represent which I would categorise as being in greater need of DEIS designation or support as this community and school. On these grounds, I encourage the Minister of State, if he is not in a position to offer a full response today, to speak to the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, who has represented this area in the past to ensure he is aware of the requirement not to compromise the needs of this community and that adequate Government support will continue.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue, to which I am responding on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for lifelong learning, Deputy Seán Haughey.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to address the House on the position at this school. 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 provides 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 881 schools in DEIS. These comprise 679 primary schools which include 200 urban band 1, 145 urban band 2 and 334 rural as well as 202 second level schools. The school to which the Senator referred is among the schools that were judged by an independent identification process in 2005 not to have a sufficient level of disadvantage among their pupils to warrant their inclusion in DEIS.

A review mechanism was put in place in 2006 to address the concerns of schools that did not thus qualify but which regarded themselves as having a level of disadvantage of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The review process operated under the direction of an independent person charged with ensuring all relevant identification processes and procedures were properly followed in the case of schools applying for a review. The review was concluded and the results were notified to schools who applied for the review in August 2006. There was an application for review from Togher boys' national school. The school was unsuccessful in that process.

Since the introduction of DEIS, this school, together with 1,900 other primary schools, retained resources under pre-existing schemes and programmes for addressing educational disadvantage. When DEIS was introduced, a commitment was given as a concessionary measure to these schools that they would retain a level of support for the duration of the DEIS initiative. As a result of the economic downturn, however, as the Senator will be aware, the Government has had to make a number of difficult and challenging decisions in recent budgets. One of these decisions arising out of the 2009 budget was to advance the withdrawal of these concessionary supports from non-DEIS schools to the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.

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 which recommended that the Department should focus its educational disadvantage measures on those schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.

In preparation for the next identification process, a departmental steering group, including representatives of the ERC and the inspectorate, was appointed in January of last year. Its purpose is to review the 2005 identification process and to examine potential new variables and data sources which can be deployed in the next identification process. It is not possible to determine when the identification process will be complete as this will largely depend on the outcomes of the planned consultation process. Together with all mainstream schools in the State, Togher boys' national school will be provided with an opportunity to be included in the Department's next educational disadvantage programme should it meet the qualification criteria at that time. I thank Senator Boyle for providing me with the opportunity to address the House on this matter and outline the current position.