Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 May 2021
317. Deputy Joe Carey asked the Minister for Education if she will report on progress to reform the qualifying criteria for DEIS given that schools in County Clare which should be classified in DEIS band 1 continue to be excluded for reasons outside their control; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25336/21]
View answerA detailed analysis of school enrolment data and the latest data available from Census 2016, using the HP Deprivation Index, has been carried out by members of the DEIS Technical Group. This group contains representatives of the Department’s Statistics and Social Inclusion Units, the Inspectorate and the Educational Research Centre. My Department has commenced a consultation process with education stakeholder representatives on the technical aspects and implementation of the model, and work is ongoing on final elements of the model. It is envisaged that this will then provide the basis for development of a DEIS resource allocation system to match resources to identified need. All schools will be considered under the refined model. However, until this work is complete, it is not intended to make any changes to the DEIS status of schools.
