Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 636: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if, in view of the representations which have been made to his Department, giving details of a wide range of activities that are to the advantage of disadvantaged pupils, he will consider the application from the chairman and principal teacher of a school (details supplied) in County Galway, for reconsideration and inclusion in the DEIS scheme. [4789/09]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The school to which the Deputy refers is among a number of 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 DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), 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 2005-2010. There will not be an opportunity before this to be included in the current DEIS programme of supports.

A review mechanism was put in place in 2006 to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in DEIS but regarded themselves as having a level of disadvantage which was of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The review process operated under the direction of an independent person, charged with ensuring that all relevant identification procedures were properly followed in the case of schools applying for a review. The review was concluded and the results were notified to schools in August 2006. The school in question applied for a review at that time but regrettably the school was unsuccessful in qualifying for inclusion in DEIS.

This school retained resources, including financial and a shared Rural Co-ordinator post under pre-existing schemes and programmes for addressing educational disadvantage. When DEIS was introduced, a commitment was given as a concessionary measure to this, and a number of other schools in similar circumstances, that they would retain a level of support for the duration of the DEIS Initiative.

Given the current volatile and challenging economic climate, difficult decisions had to be made in Budget 2009 in order 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 to retain resources in DEIS schools. There is a need to focus targeted resources on the schools in most need and this approach is in line with the broad thrust of the recommendations of the Comptroller and Auditor General which are set out in his report on Primary Disadvantage of 2006, which recommended that my Department should focus its educational disadvantage measures on those schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.