Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is almost a year since the Minister made the welcome announcement that the DEIS programme was to be extended. The provision of those targeted supports to more schools will benefit a great many students. More than 240,000 students are now able to avail of DEIS supports. More than 1,200 schools are involved in the scheme. As the Minister will know, every Deputy has schools in his or her area that were disappointed not to be included in the extension. I sincerely hope that it will be possible to extend this very important programme further. The Minister did excellent work last year in extending it but more good work could be done with a further extension of this very important and worthwhile scheme, which benefits the most disadvantaged students.

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