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

It was rushed because, as the Minister said, the Government did not wait until the up-to-date census figures were published. What will happen in July? What the Minister described to me is not the entry criteria for DEIS but the criteria for the Pobal HP deprivation index for small areas. The Minister has not set out clearly for schools how the Department extrapolates that information and applies it to the schools. It is completely disingenuous to tell me how Pobal decides with regard to its small areas. That does not necessarily relate to who is in the schools. It just relates to where these children are from. There could be two schools in a relatively wealthy area but many disadvantaged students could go to one school and many advantaged students go to the other and that is not taken into account. Medical cards are not perfect but the Department uses them for the school transport scheme. They are also used for admitting and facilitating disadvantaged students into third level education so there are lots of examples within the Department where other criteria are used. The Minister has not set out how the Pobal HP deprivation index for small areas is actually applied, how it relates to the school and what percentage of children from particular disadvantaged small areas need to be in the school for it to qualify for DEIS status.

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