Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1070. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way the EU-NRRP funding of €63.5 million for school broadband and digital infrastructure for schools will be allocated; the criteria and prioritisation system on which it will be based; and the classification of disadvantage being applied. [41094/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The EU-NRRP funding provided is in respect of two projects in the Digital area - one for high speed broadband connectivity for primary schools (Project A), the other for funding to provide interventions to address the digital divide, particularly access to digital devices and relevant ICT infrastructure (Project B).

Project Awill provide €13.5m in funding. This will support the intervention project whereby those primary schools outside of the National Broadband Plan Intervention area, and in areas where commercial provision is insufficient, will be provided with high speed connectivity of 100 Mbp/s or greater. Through this project, the National Broadband Plan Intervention Area implementation, and commercial provision, it is intended to provide high speed connectivity to all primary schools by the end of 2022. This will all operate within the Schools Broadband Programme, with implementation underway, led by a Steering Group including representatives from the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, HEAnet, and the PDST as well as relevant internal areas.

Work is underway on this project, with a first bundle of schools gone to tender for services.

Project Bwill provide €50m in funding. This will issue through a one-off scheme to schools, targeting those learners most at risk of educational disadvantage. Issuing funding to all recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme will be considered, as available data shows that while there are schools in areas of concentrated disadvantage, most schools will have learners at risk of educational disadvantage among their cohort. Schools are best placed to identify and address inequalities to ensure those learners most at risk are supported and have access to the appropriate digital technologies required to give them every opportunity to fulfil their potential. My Department has committed to establishing terms of the scheme and issuing the funding to schools in Q4 2021. A working group will be established shortly to establish the terms of the scheme.