Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Mhic Gabhann. Tá áthas orm an freagra seo a chur os a chomhair. Gabhaim buíochas leis as an mbuíochas a ghabh sé liom maidir leis an ionad spóirt i gContae an Chabháin. I was really happy to meet officials from Cavan GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association but also with Cavan County Council at the Deputy's request. I am delighted that the Department of sport was able to approve really massive funding, the second biggest in the country after Dalymount Park. It is what we want to see. We want to see local authorities and sporting organisations working together to provide facilities for all the people.

In respect of the topic at hand, the Department of Education provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Universal supports are available to all schools to enable them to support students at risk of disadvantage. The Minister, Deputy Foley, has secured approximately €170 million in funding to provide free school books as a universal support to all primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme. Since 2020, the Minister has provided three improvements to the teacher allocation schedule to allow for smaller class sizes in primary schools. As part of the capitation package in budget 2025, more than €30 million was secured as a permanent increase in capitation funding to help schools, now and longer term, with increased day-to-day running costs. This represents an increase of approximately 12% on current standard rates and enhanced rates. This increase is on top of the circa 9.2% increase from last year.

Supplementing the universal supports available to all schools, the DEIS programme is a key policy initiative of the Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sectors. The programme is targeted at schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage. Schools that were included in the programme in 2022 were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model was applied fairly and equally to all schools.

The extension of the programme to new schools is just one component of work in the Minister’s vision for an inclusive education system. While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, the Minister also recognises that there are students at risk of disadvantage in all schools. The Minister invited the OECD Education for Inclusive Societies project to review the current policy approach for the allocation of resources to support students at risk of disadvantage in Ireland. This review was published this year, and it found that while Ireland has a comparatively equitable education system, and the DEIS programme is a key instrument in that, gaps remain. The review finds that Ireland has an education system that consistently outperforms many other OECD countries but also exhibits relative socioeconomic fairness, making it one of the stronger performers globally. It also recognises the positive impact of resources provided universally to all schools, as well as the additional resources provided to schools in the DEIS programme, in addressing disadvantage. The review also highlights continued improvements over the past decade in retention and attainment levels between children and young people in DEIS and non-DEIS schools. It notes that, even with these improvements, important differences in outcomes persist between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and for children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and Travellers and Roma. This information and data has also informed the Traveller and Roma education strategy, published in July. The findings and recommendations of the OECD review will help inform future policy in the area of addressing educational disadvantage.

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