Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 October 2014
546. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Education and Skills her views on restoring the grant available to some non-DEIS schools in recognition of the educational supports provided to students who have significant socio-economic disadvantage. [40456/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraDEIS is my Department's main policy initiative to address educational disadvantage and its aim is to ensure that the educational needs of children and young people from disadvantaged communities are prioritised and effectively addressed. As the Deputy may be aware, the DEIS programme is the subject of ongoing evaluation by both the Educational Research Centre and my Department's Inspectorate who have produced a series of evaluation reports to date, (copies of which are available on my Department's website). I have also recently commissioned a further overall report in relation to DEIS to provide recommendations for a renewal of Government policy in relation to educational disadvantage, including DEIS. Work on this report is currently underway. The current focus of my Department is on this ongoing evaluation and distilling the learning from the research to date while awaiting the outcome of the aforementioned report. My key priority is to continue to prioritise and target resources at schools with the most concentrated levels of disadvantage and there are no plans for any additonality to the DEIS programme at this time.
