Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 181: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason two national schools (details supplied) in County Mayo did not receive a library grant under the social inclusion scheme. [3227/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Over €500,000 was made available by my Department in December 2004 for books for primary schools serving disadvantaged communities. Following consultations with the Library Association of Ireland and the Library Council, it was decided to channel this additional funding through the national school library scheme, which is administered through the local authority library system.

Over 600 schools are receiving books under this initiative. The schools involved were selected on a priority basis using the findings of the most recent comprehensive survey on levels of disadvantage in primary schools conducted by the Educational Research Centre. The additional allocation to the national school library scheme was calculated at the rate of €6 per pupil in respect of pupils enrolled in the selected schools on 30 September 2003. The aim of the initiative is to ensure that those pupils most in need of literacy support will benefit directly.

The schools to which the Deputy refers are included in the rural dimension of my Department's Giving Children an Even Break programme. Both schools are benefiting from supplementary funding and have the services of a rural co-ordinator under the programme to provide additional educational supports to be targeted at disadvantaged pupils.