Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Question 384: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on whether financial allocation towards schools here needs to be addressed in this year's budgets in order that 12 to 19 years olds can realise their potential; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34753/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There have been significant improvements in the level of funding for second level schools in recent years. In addition to the increases in the standard per capita grant that now stands at €286 per pupil from January last, voluntary secondary schools have benefitted additionally by the introduction of grants under the school services support initiative. The standard support services grant that was increased to €103 from January 2005, was increased further to €145 per pupil in the case of voluntary secondary schools. This increased grant of €42 per pupil is paid in addition to the range of equalisation grants of up to €15,554, that is €44.44 per pupil, per annum that have also been approved for voluntary secondary schools.

Teacher allocations for second level schools are approved by my Department on an annual basis in accordance with generally applied rules relating to recognised pupil enrolment. In general a ratio of 18:1 is applied in respect of recognised pupils on established junior certificate, leaving certificate, repeat leaving certificate and transition year programmes and a ratio of 16:1 is applied in respect of recognised pupils on the leaving certificate vocational programme, post leaving certificate courses and leaving certificate applied. There have been significant improvements in the pupil teacher ratio at post-primary level in recent years. In 1997-98, there was one teacher for every 16 pupils. For the school year 2004-05, the pupil-teacher ratio has fallen to 13.4:1.

There also has been enormous progress made over the past number of years on increasing the number of teachers in our schools who are specifically dedicated to providing education for children with special educational needs. At second level, there are approximately 1,614 whole-time equivalent teachers in place to support pupils with special educational needs. This compares to approximately 558 teachers who were in place in the 2001-02 school year for such pupils. In addition, there are currently 1,023 whole-time equivalent special needs assistants, SNAs, in our second level schools compared to 292 in the 2001-02 school year.

The new action plan for educational inclusion, DEIS, delivering equality of opportunity in schools, aims to ensure that the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities are prioritised and effectively addressed. The plan provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated school support programme, SSP, which will bring together and build upon a number of existing interventions for schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage.

At second level, this new standardised system for identifying disadvantage in schools will replace all of the existing arrangements for targeting schools for participation in initiatives to address disadvantage. As a result, some 150 second level schools, that will be included in a new school support programme, SSP, will benefit from additional staffing and funding supports, including increased funding under the school book grant scheme, access to home school community liaison scheme services, access to a range of supports, both academic and non-academic, to retain young people in school and so forth. These measures will be extended to second level schools in the school support programme on a phased basis.

These significant increases in the funding of post-primary schools is a clear demonstration of my commitment to prioritise available resources to address the needs of schools.