Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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167. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of establishing new Junior Certificate school library programmes in ten additional schools and in 50 additional schools. [38586/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Junior Certificate School Programme (JCSP) is a national programme sponsored by the Department of Education and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. Introduced in 1996, it is a social inclusion programme that is aimed at students who are identified as being at risk of being socially or academically isolated or at risk of early school leaving before the (then) Junior Certificate has been achieved.

Since its introduction, JCSP has expanded from 32 schools in 1996 to 240 schools in 2010. The programme expanded on a phased basis, to almost all post-primary schools participating in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) in 2010. The JCSP is also offered in Special Schools, Children Detention Schools, Traveller Training Centres and Youth Encounter Projects (YEP).

One of the initiatives under the JCSP is the JCSP Demonstration Library Project. School librarians work as part of a network of librarians in the JCSP Demonstration Library Project. Within the Demonstration Library Project, there are 32 professional librarians employed by the CDETB who are based in 30 schools that operate the library facility. They are managed by the Senior Librarian.

Librarians are responsible, together with key school staff, for drawing up and implementing library strategies to tackle the literacy difficulties experienced by many JCSP students. An important element of the JCSP is the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy which promotes a school approach and which incorporates the Library Demonstration Project.

In 2023, the JCSP programme received total funding of €3.6 million from the Department of Education. €2.1 million was in relation to salaries of the network of librarians in the JCSP programme and €1.5 million was provided for programme costs. To expand the programme to additional schools would involve the provision of a librarian in additional schools and this can be estimated as an indicative €650k for ten schools or €3.25m for 50 schools. In addition there are costs associated with other factors such as provision of the physical space, fixtures and fittings, IT facilities, librarian assistants, stock (physical and digital), national co-ordinator, professional development etc. In order to have accurate costings an evaluation would be required to include an assessment of the different school structures.

As part of the implementation of the Framework for Junior Cycle (2015), it was agreed to carry out a review of the JCSP and consider the extent to which the needs of students undertaking the JCSP are met through the Junior Cycle. Work is currently ongoing in this regard.