Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am putting an urgent question to the Minister which follows from what schools are asking us. It relates to whether the Minister is committed to removing the cap on the expansion of the DEIS scheme. It is a fantastic scheme which was established by the Fianna Fáil Government in 2006. However, the scheme has not expanded significantly since then.

Will the Minister put in place what has been recommended by the ESRI? Is there an issue with the tapering of funding? Will that happen? Will there be enhanced supports for urban DEIS schools? When are we going to expand the scheme? Many schools have been established since the programme first began to operate and they have not had the necessary benefit of the DEIS scheme.

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