Ms Amy Carey:

I thank Deputy Ward. I really appreciate his passion for Dublin 8. We are very fond of it.

DEIS is not a perfect model by any means, but one of the things Deputy Ward talked about was the lack of stigma in his experience, and the fact that there was access for everyone. Everyone got those various pieces because of the DEIS model. That is what we are saying. We should not have a sponsorship model because this should involve everyone who comes from those communities of disadvantage in order that all children in those communities, or children in rural communities also coming from disadvantaged families, have access to those supports. We do not want them to have to be individually referred. We do not think that works. There needs to be access for all. The Deputy's comments on that part of his experience are very helpful. The DEIS model is not perfect. It is the best we have at the moment. We are not saying we want to emulate it, but it is the structure that is there, so we can see something similar to it in an after-school context. We are conscious that in rural areas that will need to look different, but we do not want each child to need to be individually referred. That is what we want to move away from.