Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is a very valuable programme. Part of the problem that has been identified is that only half of disadvantaged children attending DEIS schools receive the targeted resources and that some DEIS schools are not receiving extra funding. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has been very clear on this in highlighting the narrowing gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools. However, we need to do more and consider broader areas where children from areas that are not considered disadvantaged are attending schools in those areas and are not getting the supports that they need. The criteria have not been reviewed since 2005 but Ireland is an incredibly different place from then and schools that are maybe in areas that are not seen as disadvantaged are, such as the one in Swords I mentioned earlier, 68% of whose population were not born in Ireland. We need to be more flexible in dealing with the criteria to take account of different schools in different areas.

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