Vol. 570 No. 2
324 Mr. O'Connor asked the Minister for Education and Science if funding will be provided to allow the continuation of the SSRI at Firhouse community college, Dublin 24; if his attention has been drawn to the tremendous success of the project over the years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18832/03]
My Department supports 82 projects – 65 new project sites together with the existing 17 ESLI projects under the school completion programme. Sites were selected on the basis of a detailed analysis of pupil retention rates at second level using my Department's post-primary pupils database. In addition to the 82 school completion projects, my Department supports 53 second level schools, including the school referred to by the Deputy which were funded previously under the stay in school retention initiative but were not selected for the project strand of this programme. These schools are funded on a phasing out basis to 2005. My Department is reviewing the position in relation to the phasing out of these schools and the introduction of further projects to the programme. The 53 schools involved will be notified of the outcome shortly.
