Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hope the Minister can tell us more about that as the process goes on.

The Minister also raised the issue of stakeholders. There needs to be a sea change in how the Minister and her Department show co-operation and partnership across the Dáil. We first contacted the Minister on 26 April 2021, which is almost a year ago now, because we wanted to work with her on the new DEIS model.

We have written to the Minister, or an official in her Department, 11 times since then. I raised this again with the Minister in the Dáil on 23 September, 13 October, 20 October, 25 January and 1 February and asked for a meeting, but throughout all that time the meeting was not forthcoming.

There has been such a level of non-co-operation, to be frank, that I had to resort to a freedom of information request to get basic information on how the DEIS allocation was progressing. The meeting yesterday, while it was welcome, was happening while the decision was ultimately made. I asked the Minister how many schools were included in DEIS band 1. The Minister said the process will evolve and that she will keep us posted. The Minister had the list. It is not good enough. She talks about stakeholders and co-operation but the stakeholders on this side of the House had no role in it. What is done is done but I want to see a serious improvement in how we co-operate across the floor.

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