David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 716: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the steps she has taken to facilitate making school facilities available for after-school care of school-going children; the action she has taken or intends to take to improve after-school care provision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28052/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I believe that school facilities should be available to the community outside of school hours — whether for childcare, for adult education courses or as somewhere for local community groups to meet — provided this is feasible.

Indeed, my Department issued a circular to the trustees, boards of management and principals of primary and voluntary secondary schools in March 2005 encouraging them to make their facilities available to local community groups outside of school hours.

It should be borne in mind, however, that the State does not in fact own the vast majority (more than 95%) of our schools. Most would be owned by the religious. They are owned by their trustees and managed by their boards of management, whose right it is to decide on the use of school facilities outside of school time, subject to the terms of any existing lease on the property.

Many schools already make their premises available to the local community outside of school hours and schools profit from the improved relationship with the wider community. Good relations between the school and the community can be beneficial when it comes to seeking placements for work experience, outlets for community service or when schools seek to access local services and expertise.

While my Department does not operate a specific national scheme for the provision of after-school projects, it supports a range of programmes which target additional resources at pupils from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in order to facilitate their full participation in the education system.

82 projects (108 Post Primary schools and 302 Primary schools) participate in the School Completion Programme, which aims to develop local strategies to ensure maximum participation levels in the education process. It entails targeting individual young people of school going age, both in and out of school, and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes. Each project site must devise a collaborative programme of in-school and out-of-school actions, which provide after-school, holiday time, home, family and community supports to enhance the young person's readiness to benefit from education.

Measures under DEIS the new Action Plan for Educational Inclusion, (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) range from pre-school interventions, supports for tackling children's literacy problems, reduced pupil teacher ratios, increased capitation grants, measures to tackle early school leaving and strengthen ties between the school, the family and the community.

As a result of the identification process, 840 schools, serving communities with the highest concentrations of disadvantage, have been invited to participate in the new School Support Programme. These comprise 640 primary schools (320 urban/town schools and 320 rural schools) and 200 second-level schools.

School Completion Programme services will be extended to all 320 urban/town primary schools and 200 second level schools participating in the SSP not already benefiting from these services.