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

The Minister stated that the information I am seeking is available on the Department's website. He also said that the schools will be given that information. What I want to know now is how the HP Deprivation Index is applied to schools. In other words, what level of deprivation or areas must children come from for schools to be included in the DEIS programme? Earlier this week, Mr. Haase criticised the application of this index to the DEIS programme and how the programme is being operated. That is very significant criticism. We have heard a lot about this index but the Minister has never explained to schools how it is applied. We all know about formulas. We learned theory in maths class. This is a theory. The Minister has never explained to us or the schools how it is applied to this particular area. There is a huge lack of confidence in this scheme because of the mistakes made. The changes made in this area were made not because of the model being used but because of media inquiries. The Minister purported to put out an approved method thereafter. I put it to the Minister that this scheme was rolled out before it was ready because he was extremely keen to get a good news political announcement out as quickly as possible. It was rushed out, problems have arisen and the details as to why a particular school is included or not in the scheme have never been given.

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