Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 March 2022
136. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education if a school (details supplied) in an area of deprivation in County Donegal will be considered for the DEIS programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13413/22]
View answerToday, I announced the expansion of the DEIS programme benefitting 347 schools. This will add an additional €32million to the Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023. This is the largest ever single investment in the programme and will extend additional resources to those schools most in need. For the first time since 2017 the DEIS programme is being significantly expanded and eligible schools will now gain access to targeted supports to address educational disadvantage.
The extension of the DEIS programme to additional schools follows intensive work by the DEIS technical group, which involved valuable input from stakeholders. The refined DEIS identification model builds on the objectivity and fairness of the 2017 version, but now captures a greater breadth of disadvantage and accounts for severity of disadvantage through the application of a weighted process. It also takes into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and of students residing in direct provision or emergency homeless accommodation. Using this approach we can extend the additional targeted supports of the DEIS programme to those schools serving high concentrations of students at risk of educational disadvantage. We can also be confident that the largest investment to date in the DEIS programme is being provided to those schools most in need. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools.
This announcement achieves the Programme for Government commitment to complete the new DEIS identification model and to extend DEIS status to schools serving the highest numbers of pupils at risk of educational disadvantage.
