Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 14 Oct 1999

Vol. 509 No. 3

Written Answers. - Disadvantaged Status.

Richard Bruton

Question:

27 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on whether his current policy of refusing to grant disadvantaged status to any new schools is resulting in similar schools not being treated equally, particularly in the case of St. Joseph's Christian Brothers' primary school, Fairview, Dublin 3; and if he will devise a system where schools with emerging needs can qualify for specific help to deal with their problems. [19815/99]

Tony Gregory

Question:

56 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will grant disadvantaged status to St. Joseph's CBS primary school, Fairview, Dublin 3, in view of the fact that its feeder schools and sister school have been granted this status. [18685/99]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 27 and 56 together.

The last general expansion of the disadvantaged areas scheme at primary level took place in 1994. The school in question applied for inclusion in the scheme but did not rank sufficiently high in terms of priority of need to secure inclusion on that occasion.

A subsequent study of educational disadvantage conducted by the Combat Poverty Agency and the Education Research Centre in 1996 concluded that disadvantaged status should be confined to 16 per cent of the school-going population. This study noted that such status had already been granted to 17 per cent of pupils. As an alternative to extending the disadvantaged areas scheme to additional schools, the study recommended that available resources should be targeted at schools with the greatest concentration of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In keeping with the study's recommendations, resources which subsequently became available were targeted on schools selected to participate in the Breaking the Cycle of disadvantage scheme which was introduced to deliver the sort of targeted support recommended in the study.

I can assure the Deputies that the needs of the school to which they refer will be fully considered in the event of any additional initiatives being taken to address educational disadvantage.