Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 March 2018
34. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason a school (details supplied) in County Tipperary which has been awarded RAPID status has been designated DEIS status but has yet to receive DEIS funding. [14458/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs I have previously advised the Deputy, we have, for the first time, introduced an objective, statistics based model for deciding which schools merit inclusion in the DEIS Programme, so that all stakeholders can have confidence that we are targeting extra resources at those schools with the highest concentrated levels of disadvantage. The methodology adopted to assess levels of disadvantage in schools is based on centrally held data with a uniform application across the entire school system to assess levels of disadvantage in Primary and Post-Primary schools. A detailed document explaining the methodology used in the Identification process is available on the Department’s website at
https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality-of-Opportunity-in-Schools-/DEIS-Identification-Process.pdf
Following the application of this model, 79 schools were identified last year as having significant levels of concentrated disadvantage to warrant inclusion in DEIS. These schools have been receiving supports under DEIS since September, 2017. The school referred to by the Deputy was not assessed as having a sufficiently high level of concentrated disadvantage such as to warrant inclusion in the DEIS programme at that time and therefore is not entitled to receive any of the related supports.
An update of the identification model is currently underway. This will take account of updated school data as provided by schools for the current school year combined with the Pobal HP Index of Deprivation, based on CSO Small Area Population statistics derived from the 2016 National Census. This will be followed by a quality assurance process after which the data will be available to my Department. This data will be used to inform policy decisions in terms of future provision in the DEIS programme, including decisions with regard to the future designation of schools identified as requiring supports.
