Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have already answered this question. I assure the Deputy that no school was excluded. What happened this year was that we expanded the programme to bring in 79 additional schools. No school in the scheme was withdrawn; we have expanded the scheme. We have considered extending the scheme further in future years. This was the subject of the freedom of information request, and it was in the context of the possibility of extending the scheme that the number the Deputy mentioned arose. No school is being excluded from any criteria. The existing scheme is upheld in all respects. The new scheme that we introduced brought in 79 additional schools. We will examine the new 2016 data to see whether there are schools that would qualify at that high level of disadvantage that did not get in among the 79. If there are such schools, we will include them, but a wider extension is a matter for future years.

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