Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 March 2015
509. Deputy Michael Ring asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a review has taken place regarding the issue of delivering equality of opportunity in schools status to a school (details supplied) in County Mayo; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9260/15]
View answerAs the Deputy may be aware, an extensive identification process to select schools for inclusion in DEIS was conducted in 2005. In spite of reminders, a completed survey form was not received at that time from the school referred to by the Deputy and therefore it could not be assessed for participation in DEIS. Further, an appeal mechanism was put in place in 2006 to address the concerns of schools which did not qualify for inclusion in DEIS but regarded themselves as having a level of disadvantage which was of a scale sufficient to warrant their inclusion in the programme. The school referred to by the Deputy did not participate in the appeal process.
Many representations have been made to my Department and to my predecessors, by and on behalf of this school, seeking its inclusion in DEIS. These representations were unsuccessful. It should be noted that none of the existing schools in the country, which were unsuccessful in the initial identification and subsequent review processes, were ever admitted into the DEIS programme.
