Ms Tanya Ward:

I was struck by the points made on non-DEIS schools. The Deputy hit the nail on the head. Half of all children living in poverty are not in DEIS schools. The majority of children living in poverty are in rural Ireland. This is because incomes in rural areas are lower. One of the things we really need to think about in the national and local approaches is the balance between urban and suburban areas and rural Ireland. Children and young people are missing out on some of the national programmes that have been introduced. It has definitely happened with regard to family support. There are some great family support programmes under the area based childhood programme being managed by Tusla. We have spoken about how this will need to be made mainstream. Children outside urban centres need to be able to access these types of family support measures.

I would love to see a focus on the DEIS model. It is a very important model for getting extra resources to areas in the country that need them. Half of all children in poverty are not in DEIS schools. Principals and teachers tell us that because there is no home-school liaison officer they are doing huge amounts of work late into the night trying to help families. Perhaps families are experiencing homelessness and they are trying to find a house for them. There are issues such as this. A home-school liaison officer would be able to do this work for the teachers who can then focus on their day job. They also say they do not have extra budgets for anything. If a child arrives in dirty clothes, there is nothing there. There are no extra uniforms. They do not have an extra budget they might have if it was a DEIS school. We need a more flexible approach to children living in communities where the DEIS programme does not exist.