Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 166: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if a concessionary post will be allocated to a school (details supplied) in County Carlow. [28514/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers is included in the urban dimension of my Department's Giving Children an Even Break programme aimed at combating educational disadvantage. The school receives additional financial resources to provide educational supports to be targeted at disadvantaged pupils.

The board of management of the school has submitted an appeal to the Staffing Appeal Board. The appeal will be considered by the appeal board at a meeting which is scheduled to take place on 19 October 2005. The board of management will be notified of the outcome of the appeal as soon as possible thereafter. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to intervene in the operation of the independent appeal board.

The new action plan for educational inclusion, DEIS, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, which will be introduced on a phased basis starting during the current school year, aims to ensure that the educational needs of children and young people, from pre-school to completion of upper second level education — three to 18 years — from disadvantaged communities are prioritised and effectively addressed. The new plan is the outcome of the first full review of all programmes for tackling educational disadvantage that have been put in place over the past 20 years and it will involve an additional annual investment of some €40 million on full implementation. It will also involve the creation of about 300 additional posts across the education system generally.

A key element of this new action plan is the putting in place of a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage in our primary and second level schools, which will result in improved targeting of resources at those most in need. The identification and analysis processes are being managed by the ERC on behalf of my Department.

As a result of the identification process, approximately 600 primary schools, comprising 300 urban-town and 300 rural, and 150 second level schools will be included in a new school support programme, SSP. The SSP will bring together, and build upon, a number of existing interventions for schools and school clusters-communities with a concentrated level of educational disadvantage.

We anticipate being in a position to notify participating schools in relation to the outcome of the ongoing identification process by the end of the year.