Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 649: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress made in relation to the programme for Government proposal to maximise the use of information technology to cut down on administration and put a database in place to track primary pupils. [28698/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is currently considering the results of a Feasibility Study on the development of a single point of access to share data between schools, the Department and certain Agencies such as the National Educational Welfare Board, the National Council for Special Education and the State Examinations Commission. Consideration is also being given to the timing and resource requirements of a Learner Database to be introduced initially at Primary level and then rolled out to Second-level. It is intended to proceed, as soon as resources permit, with a live online system allowing for easy exchange of information that reflects the up-to-date situation in regard to enrolment at any one time and to cut down on administrative burden and the scale of paper-based information flows across the Department and its associated agencies.

These developments will build on the existing On Line Claim System (OLCS) which already allows each primary school and Voluntary Secondary, Community and Comprehensive school through ESINET to record absences and submit claims to the Department for the payment of casual and non casual teachers and Special Needs Assistants. The process of manual form filling at school level and manual data input at Department level has been reduced as a result of OLCS.