Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 442: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason a school (details supplied) in Dublin 8 was not included in the digital schools award programme announced in November 2008; the reason he did not invite all DEIS band one schools to apply; the process that was applied by his Department in selecting the successful schools; if he has satisfied himself that this process was open and transparent; the reason the allocated grant was increased from €1 million to €1.5 million; when this announcement was made and where it was published; the reason that the school was not included in the grant allocation when the neighbouring school was awarded a grant, when the neighbouring school has the same catchment and demographic profile, and many of the pupils are from the same families; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40015/09]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 491: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason only a limited number of DEIS band one schools were called to apply for grants totalling €1.5 million from his Department in 2008, which were provided under the digital schools award programme; his views on whether there are more than 170 DEIS band one schools here but only 100 were invited to apply and that some schools were therefore put at a disadvantage as they were not allowed to apply for funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40540/09]

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 492: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason a DEIS band one school (details supplied) in Dublin 8 was not invited to apply for a grant from his Department under the digital schools award programme in November 2008, which was coordinated by the National Centre for Technology in Education; his views on whether this school was put at a disadvantage in view of the fact that it was unable to access this funding like other local schools in DEIS band one; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40541/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 442, 491 and 492 together.

The Government allocated €1m in March 2008 from the Dormant Accounts Educational Disadvantage Programme for a scheme to assist 100 disadvantaged schools to progress towards achieving Digital Schools Status, this was subsequently increased to €1.6m in December, 2008 in the expectation that the scheme would be heavily subscribed.

The process of identifying the 100 primary schools for participation in the scheme involved selecting those schools participating in the Primary Urban Band 1 strand of my Department's DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) Programme. The selection of schools for inclusion in DEIS was based on an extensive identification process conducted by the Educational Research Centre on behalf of the Department in 2005 which identified the socio-economic variables that collectively best predict achievement. At present some 200 schools are included in the Primary Urban Band 1 strand of DEIS and within that band there are varying levels of disadvantage ranging from extreme to just severe. The 100 schools identified with the highest concentration of disadvantage within that band have been targeted to benefit from this particular scheme and applications were invited from these schools.

The school referred to by the Deputy is outside of the first 100 DEIS Urban Band 1 schools and therefore was not included in the scheme. The possibility of extending the scheme in the future to other DEIS schools will be considered in the light of future available resources.

The decision to limit the grant to the top 100 DEIS band 1 schools was taken on the basis that the available funds were limited and that dividing the limited overall fund between all DEIS band 1 schools (of which there are presently 200) would so dilute the individual grants as to render them insufficient to achieve their objectives.

In 2006 the Comptroller and Auditor General reported on educational disadvantage initiatives in the Primary Sector and central to the findings was the importance of not spreading limited resources too thinly. The rationale for this decision was in line with these recommendations whereby limited resources are targeted on the schools in most need. My Department is committed to focussing its educational disadvantage measures on those schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.