Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I have heard what the two Senators have said. The Department will make contact with all the schools affected by these decisions early in the new year. There will be an additional three months in which to meet each school to go through in detail the reason it as a DEIS school has additional resources, when other DEIS schools in a similar category have fewer resources. The Department will consider ways in which there can be an equalisation within this category. Otherwise, many DEIS schools will lack the resources possessed by the schools in question, which is inherently unfair. As resources are scarce, they must be applied as fairly and as equally as possible. The Department will contact the schools directly to ensure the facts it has in its records tally with those on the ground in those schools.