Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021
6. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Education if the consultation process in relation to the DEIS programme will be completed at an early date in view of the need to give further consideration to the applications from schools for inclusion in the DEIS programme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35308/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraA key part of the DEIS Plan was the introduction of a new DEIS identification process based on an objective, statistics based model to determine which schools merit inclusion in the DEIS programme. An extensive body of work has been undertaken in terms of the refinement of this model, based on the latest school enrolment data and data available from Census 2016 under the HP Deprivation Index.
A detailed quality analysis of the data has been carried out by members of the DEIS Technical Group which contains representatives of the Department’s Statistics and Social Inclusion Units, the Inspectorate and the Educational Research Centre. My Department has commenced a consultation process with education partners on the technical aspects of this model, and work is now ongoing on final elements of the model.
As part of the process when there is a roll out of any changed or new model, my Department engages with the education partners to ensure that there is a clear understanding across the system and that the process is clear, open, transparent and easily understood.
It is envisaged that this will provide the basis for the development and application of a refined DEIS resource allocation model to ultimately match resources to identified need. All schools will be considered for inclusion under the refined DEIS model. Until this work is complete, it is not intended to extend the DEIS programme to any further schools.
