Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 531: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the implications of the announcement within budget 2009 to abolish the Educational Disadvantage Committee; the date by which this is expected to take place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38410/08]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Educational Disadvantage Committee (EDC) was established under Section 32 of the Education Act, 1998. The role of the EDC was to advise the Minister for Education and Science on policies and strategies to be adopted to identify and correct educational disadvantage. The Committee's final report 'Moving Beyond Educational Disadvantage' was published in December 2005.

The Government has decided as part of the decision on rationalisation of agencies in the 2009 budget, that a formal statutory Committee is no longer required in order to advise on the issue of educational disadvantage. This will require an amendment to existing legislation which will be brought before the Dáil at the earliest available opportunity.

DEIS, the Action Plan for Educational Inclusion, focuses on the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities. The Action Plan,which was launched in 2006, draws upon and complements a number of conclusions of the EDC's final report as well as contributions from the Education Partners.

The abolition of the EDC will not adversely impact upon the Department's commitment to ongoing consultation on educational disadvantage and the wider social inclusion agenda. Indeed the Government's commitments to tackling educational disadvantage are set out in Towards 2016 and the NAPinclusion 2007-13 as well as the Social Inclusion chapter of the National Development Plan 2007-13.

Question No. 532 answered with Question No. 476.