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

The Minister has alleged that schools were included originally on a random basis or on a political basis. He will either have to put up or shut up. That is an extremely serious allegation to make. The Minister should name the schools included in DEIS that should not be included. If there are schools included in the scheme on a political basis they need to be removed because they do not deserve to be there. That is the logical consequence. Nobody would disagree with that. However, I believe the Minister is only saying that because he has not been able to explain how the current scheme operates and on what basis schools are included. How many children in a school must come from a disadvantaged area in order that that school can qualify for the DEIS programme? Is it one child or all children? We do not know that. I am asking the Minister for that information.

In regard to the Minister's statement that there are schools in the DEIS programme that are wrongly included, I call on him to prove that.

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