Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept any of that. The Minister spoke about fairness; there is no element of fairness. I called on the Minister to conduct an immediate review of the criteria under which schools are assessed for inclusion in DEIS. I spoke after five schools in Tipperary town along with the Holy Trinity school in Fethard were ruled out. The Minister said that there would be another scheme, but we have waited too long for this scheme to come. The fact that there is no application or appeal process is a farce. There must be some guidelines in that area. We know the benefit. The Minister has named the criteria and the schools in Tipperary town meet all of them. The five schools came together, thinking they were doing the right thing, to make a joint approach not to discriminate one from the others and the whole lot were left out without any explanation.

The Minister's recent announcement is the clearest indication yet that the criteria used to select schools for DEIS status are bordering on useless and the Department of Education and Skills itself has acknowledged this. There is something very serious here. The fact that there is no application process means they are left in limbo. Will we have to wait another eight years for another review? There is no clarity in respect of this matter.

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