Vol. 434 No. 2
402 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Education if, in view of a delegation she received from national schools in Ballymun in February 1993, she will grant a special increase in capitation fees for schools in deprived areas over and above the disadvantaged area schools.
As the Deputy will be aware I secured an increase of £3.4 million in the 1993 provision for capitation grant for primary schools. This enabled an increase of £5 to be provided in the standard rate of grant bringing it to a level of £33 per pupil with pro-rata increases for certain other categories of school. It also enables certain additional funds, as referred to below, to be allocated to disadvantaged areas.
The Scheme of Assistance for Schools in designated areas of Disadvantage provides for concessionary teaching posts as well as additional financial assistance for the schools concerned. The level of assistance currently stands at £17 per pupil which is comprised of (i) a supplementary capitation grant of £10 per pupil, (ii) a grant of £5 per pupil for books and materials and (ii) £2 per pupil towards home/school/community liaison initiatives.
All the primary schools in the Ballymun area have been included in the Disadvantaged Scheme and have been allocated a total of 12 concessionary posts to date in addition to the extra grants outlined above. Also, six of these schools have the services of full-time home/school/community liaison co-ordinators.
In pursuance of my policy of targeting additional resources at schools serving children from disadvantaged areas, I am also making an additional £250,000 available this year to alleviate the burden on certain schools in disadvantaged areas who are in severe financial crisis.
Decisions on the allocation of this fund will be announced shortly. I can assure the Deputy that the case for the schools in the Ballymun area will be fully considered in this process.
