Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Byrne has said, there is a complete lack of transparency on this issue. As far as the schools in my constituency - the five schools in Tipperary town - are concerned, they met the criteria but have been deprived of DEIS status. From what I can see, this is purely a budgetary exercise by the Department. There is no genuine reason these 257 schools should not have been given the extra resources which DEIS status would have provided. These schools are extremely disappointed at the way they have been treated. I pay tribute to Carl O'Brien from The Irish Timesfor bringing this to our attention. As public representatives, it was very disappointing that we had to find out from the media that these schools were excluded.

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