Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 388: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will immediately reverse the decision of his Department to refuse to reconsider the decision to omit a school (details supplied) in Dublin 24 from the list of 100 schools invited to apply for grant aid in respect of computer equipment; if his attention has been drawn to the view within the community that the schools are being penalised for being successful; if he will have the matter sorted out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47463/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Funding of €1 million has been approved from the Dormant Accounts Educational Disadvantage Programme for a scheme to assist 100 disadvantaged schools to progress towards achieving Digital School Status. The Digital Schools Award is an initiative which recognises excellence in a school's approach to integrating information and communications technology in its learning and teaching. Having regard to the funding of €1 million being available, the 100 schools identified with the highest concentration of disadvantage have been targeted to benefit from this particular scheme. Applications were invited from the 100 Primary Urban Band 1 DEIS schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.

Three schools' having already been awarded Digital School Status, were excluded from the scope of the scheme which is intended to assist schools to progress towards achievement of such status. As the school in question is one of the schools that has already achieved Digital School status, it has been excluded from this particular scheme. I commend the efforts of the whole school community in their valuable work in integrating ICT into their teaching and learning which has been recognised in their achievement of Digital School Status.

I recognise the need for further investment in schools' ICT infrastructure and I am committed to investing in this area within available resources.