Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 1169: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress made in regard to the commitment given in the programme for Government to maximise the use of information technology to cut down on administration and put a database in place to track primary pupils; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29427/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department continues to seek to reduce the administrative overhead for schools through the use of information technology most notably in providing on-line facilities to streamline the collection of data and reduce the number of manual tasks. The esinet portal through which these on-line services are delivered already provides an On-Line Claims System (OLCS) which allows each primary school and Voluntary Secondary, Community and Comprehensive school record absences and submit claims to the Department for the payment of casual and non casual teachers and Special Needs Assistants. This system has significantly reduced the process of manual form filling at school level and manual data input at Department level. A Returns service has also been provided to enable post primary schools upload pupil data.

With regard to the database to track primary pupils, it has not been possible to begin the development of the Learners Database this year however it is intended that it will proceed as soon as resources permit.