Niall Blaney (Donegal North East, IND-FF)
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Question 504: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will examine the application for a review of the decision not to include a school (details supplied) in County Donegal in the school support programme under the DEIS action plan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24488/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), the 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 SSP 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 SSP. 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 programme accepted the invitation.

Schools that did not qualify for the new programme will keep the extra resources they are getting under existing schemes for the 2006/07 school year and after that they will continue to get support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils.

A review mechanism has been put in place to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in the School Support Programme but regard themselves as having a level of disadvantage which is of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The school referred to by the Deputy has submitted a review application. The review process is underway and it is anticipated that it will be completed by the end of the current school year.