Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will be happy to take suggestions on this from the Opposition spokespersons. I agree with the Deputy that we will have to ensure that we protect funding, and there will be issues around new schools coming in and protecting funding for existing schools. That will have to be central to the decisions that are made on foot of the review. Protecting that funding in terms of the allocation for the next budget will be my responsibility. Obviously, schools not currently in the DEIS programme will be applying and we will have to ensure that there is funding available to accommodate that.

The intention is to continue what is positive and good about DEIS, and there is a lot of positivity in terms of the outcomes. For example, one of the outcomes we have seen in the recent numeracy and literacy results is that while there has been an improvement in DEIS schools there has also been an improvement in other schools. The gap has not narrowed, and that is something we will have to examine.

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