Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 March 2017
118. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education and Skills if officials in his Department considered the research document, A Case of Mistaken Identity, conducted by Togher Family Centre in association with local schools, in producing the criteria upon which applications for DEIS would be considered, and in any individual evaluations. [10579/17]
View answerDEIS is my Department's main policy initiative to tackle educational disadvantage. The DEIS Plan 2017 sets out our vision for future intervention in the critical area of social inclusion in education policy.
A key element of DEIS Plan 2017 is the availability of a new identification process for the assessment of schools for inclusion in DEIS using centrally held CSO and DES data.
The key data sources are the DES Primary Online Database (POD) and Post-Primary Online (PPOD) Databases, and CSO data from the National Census of Population as represented in the Pobal HP Index for Small Areas which is a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a particular geographical area. Variables used in the compilation of the HP Index include those related to demographic growth, social class composition and labour market situation. This data is combined with pupil data, anonymised and aggregated to small area, to provide information on the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in the pupil cohort of individual schools. I can confirm to the Deputy that no further research documents were used in this identification process.
Further information on the development of the identification process is available in the DEIS Review report which can be found on my Department's website at http://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality .
