Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 426: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the funding streams available to tackle educational disadvantage and the number of primary schools availing of such funding in each stream. [40115/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Approximately €600 million has been allocated by the Department in 2005 for programmes specifically designed to tackle educational disadvantage in accordance with the strategies outlined in the National Action Plan against Poverty and Social Exclusion 2003-05 and Sustaining Progress.

The wide variety of measures in place for tackling educational disadvantage and social exclusion reflect these concerns. These measures range from pre-school interventions, supports for tackling children's literacy problems, reduced pupil-teacher ratios, increased capitation grants, and measures to tackle early school leaving and strengthen ties between the school, the family and the community. In addition, there are interventions in support of youth and in providing "second chance education" for young people and adults.

This includes 310 primary schools included in the disadvantaged areas scheme, all of which are included in the home school community liaison scheme; 151 primary schools in the Breaking the Cycle project; 2,337 primary schools in Giving Children an Even Break; 40 primary schools in the Early Start pre-school project; 82 projects, consisting of 107 post-primary schools and 301 main feeder primary schools participate in the project strand of school completion programme; and 47 schools in the support teacher pilot project.

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 disadvantage experienced and a new integrated school support programme. The SSP will bring together, and build upon, existing interventions for schools and school clusters-communities with a concentrated level of educational disadvantage. Existing schemes and programmes will be integrated into the school support programme on a phased basis over the implementation period.

We anticipate being in a position to notify participating schools on the outcome of the ongoing identification process early in the new year.