Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The budget provision has been made for this year and includes 2,500 additional teachers and 860 additional special needs assistants, SNAs, in schools to provide support. There is a clear commitment to increase the support for education. The DEIS schools will be recipients of that support.

What we are doing now is reviewing the whole programme to see whether we can do better in DEIS schools. It has come into sharp relief that although there has been significant improvement in literacy and retention levels, DEIS schools have not succeeded in closing the gap with other schools. We need to look afresh. Are there innovations we could introduce? Are there new things we could do in terms of teaching methodologies, leadership in the schools or supports of one sort or another? That is what I am examining. That needs to be done. DEIS is not stationary. We do not leave it as it is for all time. We are doing a review. We will do the part that includes introducing new schools. More important, we will ensure we are not missing out on initiatives based on international experience that could bring better outcomes to these schools.

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