Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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155. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she has engaged with school completion officers regarding their pension entitlements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9185/23]

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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156. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she has engaged with school completion officers regarding their pension entitlements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9186/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 155 and 156 together.

Since 1 January 2021, responsibility for the administration of the School Completion Programme (SCP), transferred back from the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to my Department.

SCP is one strand of the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) and is funded by my Department via Tusla. This programme is a central element of the DEIS plan (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), a key policy initiative of my Department to address educational disadvantage at school level.

Since I took over responsibility for SCP in January 2021, I have secured additional funding to provide for an extension of SCP supports to 28 additional schools that were included in DEIS for the first time in September 2017, and a 5% overall increase in funding for the School Completion Programme, effective from September 2021. In addition, I negotiated a further increase of 5% for SCP under Budget 2023. This complements the recent expansion of the DEIS programme announced by me in 2022.

There are currently 122 SCP projects with local management committees. Presently, management of the SCP initiatives, including the employment of staff, occurs at local level.

The initial focus for my Department was on the development of the legislative platform to support the transfer of functions from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

This body of work has now been completed and my Department is now considering all other aspects of the programme, including governance and structures for SCP and all matters involved therein.