Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Deputy's particular interest in the DEIS scheme. The Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, including DEIS schools and non-DEIS schools, to support the inclusion of all students and to address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the DEIS programme is a key policy initiative of the Department to address concentrated - the word "concentrated" is key - educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector.

As the Deputy has referenced, in March last year, I announced a major expansion of the DEIS programme. The programme was significantly expanded for the first time since 2017 and now covers an additional 322 schools. The programme now includes over 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. This means one in every four of our students now benefits from DEIS programme supports. This recent expansion will add an additional €32 million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation for the programme to €180 million.

I am very conscious of the benefits of the DEIS programme. Analysis has shown that, since the programme began in 2006, it has helped to close the gap in achievement between schools serving populations experiencing the highest levels of educational disadvantage and those serving populations with little or no disadvantage. It has provided children who come to education at a disadvantage with an equitable opportunity to achieve their potential in education.

The extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one component of work in my vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, I recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020 and over the past three budgets, I have secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard. As part of budget 2023, as we referenced earlier, I announced over €50 million to provide schoolbooks and I reduced the pupil-teacher ratio to its lowest ever level, 23:1. This is a consequence of a reduction in each of the budgets I have presided over.

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