Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 234: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason a school (details supplied) in County Mayo has been removed from the school support programme 2006-2010; if her attention has been drawn to an application of appeal lodged in this case; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15600/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The school has not been removed from the school support programme. It was not selected for inclusion in this new programme which is aimed at providing extra supports for the most disadvantaged schools in the country. Schools not included in the new programme have no reason to worry, as they have not been told that they will lose resources as a result of DEIS, rather they have been assured that they will continue to receive support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils. DEIS is designed to ensure that schools serving the most disadvantaged communities benefit from the maximum level of support available. Over the years, no less than eight separate schemes for disadvantaged primary schools have been put in place. Some schools were benefiting from just one or two of these and others were benefiting from more. The DEIS initiative is designed to ensure the most disadvantaged schools benefit from a comprehensive package of supports, while ensuring that others continue to get support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils.

Four urban-town primary schools, 59 rural primary schools and six second level schools in Mayo have been invited to participate in the new programme and almost 20% of all the rural schools invited to benefit from the new programme nationally are in Mayo. The new DEIS programme will be of huge benefit to schools in Mayo. The Deputy will agree it is important to make sure schools serving the most disadvantaged communities get all the additional support possible and he will welcome the extra resources that DEIS will provide for Mayo schools. I assure the Deputy that there is no reason for schools that have not been identified for the new programme to worry, as they will continue to receive support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils. None of these schools has been told that it will lose supports as a result of DEIS.

A review process has been put in place for primary and second level schools that did not qualify for participation in the new school support programme and that regard themselves as having a level of disadvantage which is of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The review process will operate under the direction of an independent person, charged with ensuring all relevant identification processes and procedures were properly followed in the case of schools applying for a review. The closing date for receipt of review applications was Friday, 31 March 2006.

The school to which the Deputy refers has submitted an application for review and a formal acknowledgement has issued to the school. It is anticipated the review process will be completed before the end of the current school year. The Deputy will agree that the additional supports being made available will be of great value to those schools in Mayo which, based on the information submitted by their principals, have been selected to benefit from the new programme.

While the rationale behind the new programme is to ensure the most disadvantaged schools benefit from all the available supports, schools that are benefiting from existing schemes will keep the additional resources — financial and human — that they are getting under these initiatives for the 2006-07 school year. After that they will continue to get support in line with the level of socioeconomic disadvantage among their pupils.