Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 7 September 2018
253. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Education and Skills the additional spend in 2017 on the 79 schools added to the DEIS programme when compared with expenditure on the same schools in 2016. [35618/18]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that my Department provides a wide range of resources and supports to DEIS schools each year. Such resources include additional teaching posts, grants, curriculum supports, priority access to Continuing Professional Development, etc. The full list is available on my Department's website www.education.ie at the following link: https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality-of-Opportunity-in-Schools-/deis-supports-to-deis-schools-effective-from-2017-2018-school-year.pdf
The purpose of the overall suite of supports available to schools participating in the DEIS programme is to improve educational outcomes for pupils at greatest risk of not reaching their full potential by virtue of their socio-economic circumstances.
Details of DEIS related expenditure by my Department and other Departments, together with the number of schools in the programme is a matter of public record and can be accessed at https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality-of-Opportunity-in-Schools-/DEIS-Expenditure.pdf
Following the publication of the DEIS Review Report and DEIS Plan 2017 in February 2017, 79 new schools were included in DEIS for the first time and a further 30 schools were upgraded from Band 2 to Band 1 status. These schools have been receiving supports since September 2017. My Department currently invests over €125m annually to fund the various supports available to the 899 schools participating in the DEIS Programme in the 2018/19 school year. It is not possible to provide the additional expenditure in 2017 over the 2016 expenditure for the 79 schools included in the DEIS Programme for the first time since September 2017 due to the diverse range of supports provided. As I have stated above the full list of resources and supports available to DEIS schools is published on my Department's website.
