Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. I welcome the recent major expansion of the DEIS programme, which demonstrates the Minister's commitment, and that of the Department, to inclusive education and supporting students facing disadvantage. However, I am concerned about the identification model, which the Minister has stated is objective and statistics-based. I regularly meet with many principals and boards of management of schools in the DEIS programme in my own constituency, including in my own town of Castlebar. Despite the area of deprivation, St. Gerald's DLS College in Castlebar is in close proximity to Davitt College, a school with similar enrolment data and risk of educational disadvantage, yet one school is included in the programme and the other is not. There was a similar issue with St. Patrick's Boys' National School, which has now amalgamated with another school. While I welcome the DEIS appeals process, will there be further expansion of the programme in the coming months? I ask the Minister to provide an update on that.

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