Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 April 2018
92. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Education and Skills if a consultation process has been concluded with a school (details supplied); and if the DEIS status of this school will be adjusted as a result. [16917/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has not been engaged in a consultation process with individual schools including the school referred to by the Deputy.
The identification of schools for receipt of additional resources under the DEIS programme is informed by a scientific data based model which assesses levels of disadvantage in individual schools based on the pupil cohort of the school. It is important to note that any adjustment to the DEIS status of a school, including the school referred to by the Deputy, will be based on the DEIS Identification process.
As the Deputy may be aware, an update of the DEIS Identification process 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. It is envisaged that this process will be completed in the coming weeks.
Should this exercise reveal that any school, including the school referred to by the Deputy, which did not qualify for DEIS in 2017 now meets the criteria, applicable to schools with the highest concentration of disadvantage based on the updated information, then additional schools may be included, subject to available resources.
