Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 264: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the case of a school (details supplied) in County Tipperary on behalf of which an application has been made for disadvantaged status. [34735/06]

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. In the primary sector, the identification process was based on a survey carried out by the ERC in May 2005, from which a response rate of more than 97% was achieved.

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. The school referred to by the Deputy was not among those identified for inclusion in the School Support Programme.

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 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.

The DEIS action plan states that, as well as the provision being made under the new School Support Programme 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.