Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 248: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if a recently established and recognised school (details supplied) in Dublin 11 situated in a RAPID area, will be eligible for additional financial supports under any of the many initiatives to tackle disadvantage operated by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35919/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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A key element of DEIS, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, the new action plan for educational inclusion is the putting in place of a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage in our primary and second-level schools for the purposes of qualifying for resources, both human and financial, according to the degree of disadvantaged experienced. This standardised system will replace all of the existing arrangements for targeting schools for participation in initiatives to address disadvantage. This process is being managed by the Educational Research Centre, Drumcondra, on behalf of my Department, assisted by an advisory group, and will be supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through my Department's regional offices and the inspectorate.

As a result of the identification process which involved a new survey of all mainstream primary schools conducted by the ERC in May last and the updating by them of existing data sources on the levels of disadvantage in second-level schools, 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. 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. Existing schemes and programmes will be integrated into the SSP on a phased basis over the implementation period. 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.

The school to which the Deputy refers opened at the start of the 2005-06 school year and was not included in the recent ERC survey. However, my Department will be putting in place arrangements for the handling of exceptional cases that will arise in between identification processes early in 2006. The next identification process will be in 2009-10 and will continue thereafter on a three-year cyclical basis. This arrangement will include newly established schools.