Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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455. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount allocated to the school completion programme for each of the past four years; the allocation of funding for this programme for 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44749/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The School Completion Programme, (SCP) is funded by my Department via Tulsa Education Support Service (TESS) and is a central element of the DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) programme, a key policy initiative of my Department to address educational disadvantage at school level.

Since I took over responsibility for the SCP in January 2021, an additional allocation of €2.3 million was provided for the programme as part of Budget 2021 measures, increasing the SCP full year budget to €27 million from 2022. This increase allowed for the extension of SCP to an additional 28 schools and incorporated a 5 % increase in budget to current SCP funding overall.

From September 2022, an additional €4 million (€5.9 million full year) was provided to allow access to SCP to new DEIS urban primary and post-primary schools under the recent DEIS expansion.

Under Budget 2023, a further increase of 5 % for SCP was negotiated and the total allocation of SCP funding for 2023 was €34 million.

The total allocation for the SCP for 2024 is now over €35 million, which encompasses additional provision following recent pay agreements reached for section 56 workers, which includes the SCP workers.

The total budget for my Department in 2025 will be €11.835 billion. Since 2020, funding for school-level education has increased by around €3.1 billion (36%). Budget 2025 provides an increase of €982 million in core funding, an increase of 9%, and builds on significant increases in recent budgets. There is also €120 million to be allocated for Cost of Living supports to be paid out in 2024.

Also, as part of these measures, over €10 million of additional funding is being allocated for social inclusion programmes targeted at the most vulnerable children at risk of education disadvantage and to prevent early school leaving. This includes providing supports and resources to children who attend alternative education settings. This funding is also being made available to commence the implementation of the Traveller and Roma Education Strategy, and other measures to support engagement with education for Traveller, Roma, migrant families, and families experiencing poverty and deprivation. Officials from my Department are currently working on the allocation of this funding, across a number of programmes and initiatives which will aim to support the most vulnerable children and young people in our education system.