Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The submission made by Dr. Feely contained a lot about the DEIS plan and the DEIS plus scheme that were being developed. Does she anticipate being quite heavily involved in discussions with the Department? Would the alliance like to be involved in discussions? I am sometimes baffled by the current DEIS scheme. Recently, I met a school principal in Oldcastle in my constituency. The primary school feeds into the secondary school and one is DEIS while the other is not. He could show me the names, so the information was not really anecdotal. Does Dr. Feely expect the alliance to be involved and would it like to be involved?

Regarding the statistics, 40% of young people from a lower socioeconomic background, versus 60%, go on to further education. How could this be addressed? Is it down to more scholarships? What can we do?