Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 March 2022
272. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Education the reason that the disadvantage faced by schools on offshore islands was not a criterion in considering schools under the DEIS programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15631/22]
View answerI announced on the 9th March, 2022 the expansion of the DEIS programme benefitting 347 schools. These schools were identified as having the highest levels of educational disadvantage. In the 2022/23 academic year there will be 1,194 schools in the DEIS Programme - 960 Primary and 234 Post Primary. This will also mean a €32million increase in my Department's expenditure on DEIS programme from 2023. This is the largest ever single investment in the programme and will extend DEIS status to schools serving the highest proportions of pupils at risk of educational disadvantage.
This announcement follows an extensive body of work by the DEIS technical group to develop the refined DEIS identification model to identify the concentrated levels of disadvantage of schools. Schools were identified for inclusion in the programme through the refined DEIS identification model which is an objective, statistics based model. The model uses information from the 2021/22 Department of Education enrolment databases and 2016 national census data as represented by the Pobal HP Deprivation index.
The Pobal HP Deprivation index is Ireland’s primary social gradient tool, used by numerous State agencies for the identification of disadvantage, in order to target resources towards communities most in need. The Index is a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a particular geographical area using data returned from the most recent National Census. This also applies to Census information returned from people resident on offshore islands. This information is then considered within the application of the HP index within the DEIS identification model.
The DEIS identification model now takes into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and by students residing in direct provision or emergency homeless accommodation. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools.
