Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 November 2014
42. Deputy Michelle Mulherin asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will include a school (details supplied) in County Mayo in the DEIS scheme so that the pupils there will have parity with the pupils in neighbouring schools and they will not suffer disadvantage due to their exclusion from DEIS through no fault of their own. [45094/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy may be aware, the school in question did not participate in a 2005 identification process to select schools for inclusion in DEIS, or in a later appeals process open to schools which had not qualified for inclusion in DEIS.
Many representations have been made to my Department and to my predecessors, by and on behalf of the school, seeking its inclusion in DEIS. These representations were unsuccessful. It should be noted that no school in the country which was unsuccessful in the initial identification and subsequent review processes, were ever admitted into the DEIS programme at a later date.
My current priority is to continue to target resources in schools with the most concentrated levels of disadvantage and in the current economic climate there is no capacity to provide for the inclusion of additional schools in DEIS.
