Ms Marian Quinn:

The DEIS model is one model and it has worked very well for some children, but other children have been excluded. I am down on the Cork-Limerick border, and in our local town some schools have DEIS designation because the principals were very proactive at the time and got it. The siblings of the children who go to that school go to a different school, where there are no such supports, so children can be left out. In both rural and urban areas there are children and families who need particular supports. They may not be in the catchment area of a DEIS school and may, therefore, have to travel outside of their community and away from their peers in order to be able to access services if they are to be found only under that model. If, however, we restore access to targeted schemes or have a different type of process for children to engage in, we can, in the meantime, look at what innovative model we can get that does not exclude or stigmatise any child. We do not need to piggyback on a model that does not cover that. Mr. Kenny would say he is in an area that does not have DEIS designation but does have a significant level of disadvantage and a significant number of marginalised families. We have time to build a really good comprehensive model, learn from what does not work in the DEIS model and then make sure we do not bring that to the new model. In the meantime, we have to mind the children who are being excluded from the NCS.