Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 236: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will review her Department's decision not to make additional funding available for special educational enterprises (details supplied) which address the socio economic reasons which prevent children from participating in main stream education in a manner that ensures that they do not fall further away from the central norms of society and become a risk to themselves, their families and their community either by drug abuse or other forms of criminality; if she will in particular look at the meagre funding currently available to the project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13280/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Funding was allocated to the Life Centre, Pearse Square in December 2006 through the Fund for the Development of Targeted Educational Responses to Certain Children at Risk (CAR Fund) to provide a programme for young people between the ages of 12 and 16 who are out of the mainstream school system.

The objective of the Fund is to develop preventative and supportive programmes, which are targeted at children and young people who are at risk of educational disadvantage and social exclusion. A key focus of the initiative is the empowerment of local communities to develop innovative and flexible programmes that address identified needs of intended participants.

The Life Centre is also being supported by my Department through an annual allocation of VEC teaching hours. A review of allocations to VECs under the Co-Operation Hours with Other Institutions is currently being undertaken by my Department and the needs of the Life Centre will be considered in the context of this review.

Enhancing attendance, progression, retention and attainment are central to DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) the action plan for educational inclusion, which is being implemented at present in 873 schools comprising 670 primary schools (338 urban/town schools and 332 rural schools) and 203 second-level schools. A key objective of this action plan is to enhance integration and partnership working, both within the education sector itself and between all other relevant Government departments, agencies, organisations and groups. Under DEIS, my Department, through the network of ten regional offices is enhancing its capacity to work in partnership with locally based agencies and individuals promoting social inclusion measures.

Measures under DEIS 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.

A key component of my Department's strategy to discriminate positively in favour of children and young people who are at risk of early school leaving is the School Completion Programme. This programme was implemented to directly target those in danger of dropping out of the education system and in line with current thinking favours an integrated cross-community and cross-sectoral approach based on the development of local strategies to ensure maximum participation levels in the education process. It entails targeting individual young people aged 4-18, both in and out of school, and arranging supports to address inequalities in education access, participation and outcomes. The programme is funded on a multi-annual basis under the National Development Plan (NDP) with assistance from the European Social Fund (ESF).

Increased access will be provided to the inner city second level and urban/town primary schools in the School Support Programme to provide a range of academic and non-academic supports based in-school, after school, out-of-school and during holiday time, based on best practices identified through the School Completion Programme (SCP).