Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister on what she is proposing to do. Nobody could disagree with her proposals but, meanwhile back at the ranch, children are going through primary and post-primary schools that warrant DEIS classification but which do not have the resources required. She is effectively saying to the students she will not be able to do anything for them and that they will have to continue within their primary or post-primary schools under such circumstances, despite there being a cohort of students in DEIS-categorised schools that she will look after. She is implying she will look after children in the non-DEIS schools at some time in the future when the commissioned reports are brought forward.

I examined data on one of the schools only today. An analysis of the second-year students in that school showed that 77% were at or below the 50th percentile in verbal reasoning. Some 76% of the students in third year were at or below the 50th percentile. We all know the importance being attributed to mathematics. With regard to numerical ability in the school in question, 87% of the students in the second year were at or below the 50th percentile, while 82% of the students in third year were below the 50th percentile. We have got to do something for children in such circumstances.

When one couples the failure to expand and develop the DEIS programme to keep pace with the expansion of schools with the fact that the Department took away the guidance support service that so many schools had, one realises a dreadful disservice is being done to disadvantaged students, in particular.

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