John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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112. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he is aware of any specific access programmes that are being established to provide a route to third level, specifically to Dublin Institute of Technology, Grangegorman, for young persons from the inner city of Dublin; if there are none, if he will consider putting some in place; if he recognises the importance of such access programmes for persons from disadvantaged areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21439/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Access Service actively engages directly with primary and post primary schools in the inner city of Dublin.

The DIT 'Inner City' school programme focuses on working with 1st to 6th year students in 13 schools in the inner city area. The overall aim of this programme is to increase the number of students from schools in inner city Dublin entering and completing higher education.

Activities through this programme are run both on-campus and in schools and include on-campus tours, shadowing days, the Take 5 Summer School and college taster programmes. There are also workshops for students exploring the link between college and careers and promoting entry routes such as the HEAR and DARE schemes. For leaving certificate students supports include Easter revision courses and supervised study programmes.

DIT also supports a number of Access Entry Routes for students in disadvantaged areas such as inner city Dublin. These include the Access Foundation Programme which is a one year full time programme that prepares young people for higher education. In 2015/16 approximately one third of students participating in this programme were from inner city Dublin.

DIT also participates in the HEAR and DARE schemes which offer higher education places at reduced points to school leavers from socio-economically disadvantaged areas.