Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 21: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of appeals received in relation to inclusion or non-inclusion in the new DEIS programme; the number heard to date; the number decided to date; the number granted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19903/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), the new action plan for educational inclusion, provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated School Support Programme (SSP). The School Support Programme will bring together, and build upon, a number of existing interventions in schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage.

The process of identifying primary and second-level schools for participation in the new School Support was managed by the Educational Research Centre (ERC) on behalf of my Department and supported by quality assurance work co-ordinated through the Department's regional offices and the Inspectorate.

As a result of the identification process, 840 schools were invited to participate in the new School Support Programme. These comprised 640 primary schools (320 urban/town schools and 320 rural schools) and 200 second-level schools. I am delighted to say that 833 of the schools invited to join the new School Support Programme have accepted the invitation.

A review process has been put in place for primary and second-level schools that did not qualify for participation in the 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 closing date for receipt of review applications was Friday, 31 March, 2006.

Details of this review process were notified by letter in early March to: primary schools not selected for inclusion in the SSP and second-level schools, in the Free Education Scheme, not selected for inclusion in the SSP. Over 360 review applications from schools have been received.

The review process is underway and it is anticipated that it will be completed by the end of the current school year.

The review process will operate under the direction of an independent person, charged with ensuring that all relevant identification processes and procedures were properly followed in the case of schools applying for a review.

The review process applies only to those primary schools that participated in the ERC survey in May 2005 and only to those eligible second-level schools for which data were available from the relevant databases.

Review requests must be evidence-based and based on the variables and reference dates used in the identification process for the SSP. Having completed the process for each school requesting a review, the review group will make a recommendation to my Department in the case of each such school.