Vol. 459 No. 3
146 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Education if she will give favourable consideration to the request from a primary school (details supplied) in Dublin North West for a full home/school liaison teacher in view of the fact that the school has 430 pupils, is located in a very disadvantaged area and is currently sharing a home/school liaison teacher. [18278/95]
The school referred to by the Deputy has been included in the home-school/liaison scheme since 1991 and shares the services of a local co-ordinator with the local girls's school. In the current year, I allocated a further thirty co-ordinators to the home-school community liaison scheme. This brings the total number of co-ordinators serving this scheme to 105.
I am keeping the question of further expansion of the scheme under ongoing review. The needs of the school mentioned by the Deputy will be considered in the context of any further development of the scheme being undertaken.
I should mention that the school in question is included in the disadvantaged areas scheme and as such has the service of two additional concessionary teaching posts and receives additional capitation funding at the rate of £25 per pupil. The school also received funding amounting to almost £4,000 in the 1994/95 school year as part of an initiative aimed at assisting schools experiencing particular financial difficulty.
