Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 276: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the consequence of the loss of a home school community liaison post at a school (details supplied) in County Dublin; if his further attention has been drawn to the fact that this is more than just a school based post, and that it provides a community service centred around the school; if he will rescind the decision in relation to this post; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44292/08]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers is among the schools that were judged by an independent identification process in 2005 not to have a sufficient level of disadvantage among their pupils to warrant their inclusion in Delivering Equality of Opportunities in Schools, DEIS, which the action plan for educational inclusion. The next identification process is scheduled to be held at the end of the current DEIS programme which runs from 2005 to 2010. There will be no opportunity before this to get included in the current DEIS programme of supports. The school in question, together with 26 other primary and 73 post-primary schools, retained resources — teaching posts, including home-school community liaison posts, and financial resources — under pre-existing schemes and programmes for addressing educational disadvantage.

When DEIS was introduced, a commitment was given as a concessionary measure to these schools that they would retain a level of support for the duration of the initiative. While it is appreciated that the discontinuation of these resources will impact on the schools, given the current volatile and challenging economic climate difficult decisions had to be made to contain public sector spending. One of these decisions was to advance the withdrawal of such supports from non-DEIS schools to the beginning of the next school year. The main focus of social inclusion measures will be on retaining resources in DEIS schools. There is a need to focus targeted resources on the schools in most need. This approach is in line with the broad thrust of the recommendations of the Comptroller and Auditor General, as set out in his 2006 report on primary disadvantage, which recommended that my Department should focus its educational disadvantage measures on schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.