Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I emphasise a point on which the Minister did not respond and while I accept the officials cannot respond, I hope it will be taken into account. I am not sure bullet point H makes sense. I am not sure if additional work should always be provided or if that would always be suitable. What are the consequences if a school does not comply? It is not immediately clear to me that it would be possible for the Department to enforce this requirement.

There has been some discussion of resources. When the previous round of additional DEIS designations was announced a few years ago, no new schools were added to the DEIS band 2 category. While many of those schools are much less resource-intensive than DEIS band 1 schools and would not require the same reduced pupil teacher ratios, but they would avail of school completion and home school liaison supports. That is a resource that needs to be looked at again. In many instances, good work done with school completion and home school liaison would prevent some of these issues arising as the relationship between the family, the child and the school would be maintained in a much better way. That is a point that needs to be considered.