Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is the answer I anticipated. Dealing with the wider issue of DEIS, we all know that there are lies, damned lies and statistics. There will always be anomalies. I often think of Dundalk, where there is absolute deprivation side by side with people who are in a different socioeconomic bracket. The average, therefore, does not necessarily reflect the reality on the ground for some people. There needs to be an element of flexibility in the appeals process and, beyond that, there needs to be flexibility and a re-examination with regard to how DEIS is addressed. The whole idea behind DEIS to facilitate children and provide extra resources to schools so that they can provide the best education for children, particularly those in deprived areas.

I have thrown out some of the issues regarding new estates that have been built and so on. I accept that there will always have to be rules, regulations and criteria but we have to find a better way to look at this because we all hope that, in the future, we will be dealing with many new builds, whether for social housing or otherwise. We, therefore, need to make sure this happens.

There are very specific issues with regard to this school. We are talking about an older legacy building and its heating system. We need to find a means of dealing with that. If we are looking at the model for identifying DEIS eligibility, it would not make sense not to deal with all of these issues that we have at this point in time. I ask the Minister of State to talk to the relevant Ministers about looking at this school specifically to see if there is anything at all that can help them through the gap. The principal is under severe pressure to keep the school going and is trying to make sure the kids can get the education they require. The Minister of State can imagine what staff morale is like and the pressures they are facing.

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