Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will be aware that the DEIS programme is the Department of Education’s policy response to the issue of educational disadvantage. The home school community liaison, HSCL, scheme is an integral element of the DEIS programme. It is a school-based intervention provided to DEIS schools to address the needs of pupils at most risk of educational disadvantage. The role of the HSCL co-ordinator is to work primarily with the salient adults in the child’s life, in order to empower them so they can better support their children to attend school, participate in education and develop positive attitudes to life-long learning. Central to that initiative is the identification of educational needs and the provision of a tailored and proportionate response to those needs, through a range of interventions, which are evidence-based, focused and structured.

While the Department of Education undertakes the provision of resources for this scheme, the Tusla education support service has the operational responsibility for the HSCL scheme, providing training and support for co-ordinators nationally. It comes under the DEIS programme and is only for schools within this programme. The Deputy will be aware that special schools receive significant funding and supports relative to their settings. I stress again that the allocation of €2.6 billion, which is over 27% of the entire Department of Education budget, is going towards children with additional needs and special education in general.

The upshot of the Deputy's question is the fact that the HSCL scheme is really only for DEIS schools, at least at present. I understand that the rationale for that is that special schools receive significant funding and supports relative to their settings.

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