Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The time is out on that slot, so the Deputy can hang on for the second round of questions. We will try to keep things moving.

I am the next speaker in the rotation. I have quite a few questions and I will try to get through them quickly.

I am glad the Minister is reviewing DEIS across this year. Currently, DEIS is linked to the census, and the census happens every five years. The data set was collected from the previous census in 2022. Data is collected by the census form, it is fed into Pobal, and it is not repeated again for a five-year cycle. The problem with that DEIS model is that it does not capture the transience of the rental market, the transience that has been brought on by international protection, wars in Gaza and all of the conflicts and problems in the world, and the problems with social housing.

I made in a proposal in writing to the Department that it produce a new form for examining DEIS involving an in-school census that would be more relevant to what is happening in a school in a particular year rather than this five-year rolling cycle.