Modest step in right direction - Tackling disadvantage

Even the most determined society struggles to eradicate the kind of disadvantage that condemns people, from a very young age and through no fault of their own, to a life where hardship is the dominant theme.

Despite a considerable commitment to changing this harsh reality, disadvantage persists as a decisive force in far too many lives.

Education Minister Richard Bruton has announced an extension of the measures designed to tackle disadvantage in our schools and a 15% increase in budgets to achieve that objective but, almost inevitably, this has been described as inadequate.