Vol. 474 No. 3
172 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Education if an application to have St. Oliver Plunkett national school, Moate, County Westmeath, designated disadvantaged was received by her Department; if so, if this application was assessed; and the reason the school was not designated disadvantaged. [2943/97]
My Department has received an application for disadvantaged status from the school in question. The disadvantaged areas scheme was last expanded in 1994 when an additional 54 primary schools were granted disadvantaged status for funding purposes only.
Schools were selected for inclusion in the scheme on the basis of priority of need as reflected by a range of socio-economic indicators which had been agreed between my Department, schools' management and the INTO. The case put forward by the school in question was fully considered on that occasion. Unfortunately, on the basis of data submitted by the school and having regard to resource availability, the needs of the school were not considered to be of such priority as to warrant inclusion on that occasion.
In the current school year, I launched the Breaking the Cycle initiative in an effort to target resources on selected urban and rural schools which have been identified as being particularly disadvantaged. The school in question was among those considered by the Education Research Centre for inclusion in this scheme. However, the view of the ERC was that the needs of the school were not sufficient to justify its selection for inclusion in the scheme. The case put forward by the school in question will be considered in the context of any future development of supports for disadvantaged areas.
