Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she has completed the process of assessing which schools will qualify for support under the DEIS programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39658/05]

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 disadvantage experienced. This standardised system will replace all of the existing arrangements for targeting schools for participation in initiatives to address disadvantage.

The identification process involved a new survey by the Educational Research Centre of all mainstream primary schools and the updating by them of existing data sources on the levels of disadvantage in second level schools.

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.

It is anticipated that the identification process will be completed shortly and selected schools will be notified early in the new year.