The identification of schools for receipt of additional resources under the DEIS programme is informed by a scientific data based model which assesses levels of disadvantage in individual schools based on the pupil cohort of the school. This model is applied uniformly across every school in the country. Therefore, my Department does not engage in any consultation process with individual schools regarding their inclusion in DEIS. It is important to note that any adjustment to the DEIS status of a school, including the school referred to by the Deputy, will be based on the DEIS Identification process.
As the Deputy may be aware, an update of the DEIS Identification process is currently underway. This will take account of updated school data as provided by schools for the current school year combined with the Pobal HP Index of Deprivation, based on CSO Small Area Population statistics derived from the 2016 National Census. A detailed quality assurance process in respect of this is currently underway.