Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021
441. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Education if DEIS status can be applied to a school (details supplied) on socioeconomic grounds considering the economic difficulties in the area at present; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44841/20]
View answerMy Department is in the final stages of refinement of the new DEIS identification model, based on school enrolment data and the latest data available from Census 2016 using the HP Deprivation Index. A detailed quality analysis of the data has been carried out by members of the DEIS Technical Group. The work of this group is at an advanced stage and a consultation process with education stakeholder representatives on the technical aspect and implementation of this model has commenced. It is envisaged that this will then provide the basis for development of a DEIS resource allocation system to match resources to identified need.
I am confident that the culmination of this work will facilitate the ultimate aim of matching resources to identified need and will allow us to target extra resources at those schools most in need. Until this work is complete, it is not intended to extend the DEIS programme to any further schools.
