Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 103: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of schools to receive funding under the DEIS scheme; when such funding will come on stream; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34209/06]

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 DEIS plan states that as well as provision being made under the SSP for schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage, financial support will also continue to be provided for other primary schools where the level of disadvantage is more dispersed.

DEIS is designed to ensure that the schools serving the most disadvantaged communities benefit from the maximum level of support available. Schools which have not qualified for the new School Support Programme and which are receiving additional resources, both human and financial, under pre-existing schemes and programmes for addressing concentrated disadvantage, will retain these supports for 2006/2007. After that, schools will continue to get support in line with the level of disadvantage among their pupils.

As a result of the identification and review processes, 873 schools have been invited to participate in the new Programme. These comprise 670 primary schools (338 urban/town schools and 332 rural schools) and 203 second-level schools.

Grants due to the 670 Primary schools which are participating in the School Support Programme will be lodged to their schools' bank accounts on 17 November 2006. This is in addition to payments totalling €1 million which issued to those schools in June 2006. Grants due to the 203 Post Primary schools which are participating in the School Support Programme will be lodged to their schools' bank accounts in the coming month.

In addition, approximately another 2,000 schools will receive rates of grant assistance to assist them with their respective levels of dispersed disadvantage, including those that are benefitting from previous schemes.

In addition to supplementary financial assistance which is provided to Schools in SSP, schools will benefit from additional measures under DEIS which range from pre-school interventions, supports for tackling children's literacy problems, reduced pupil teacher ratios, allocation of administrative principals on lower enrolment, measures to tackle early school leaving and measures to strengthen ties between the school, the family and the community.