Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the Minister of State's comments and thank him for his attendance. His response is contradictory when one reads it. On the one hand, the DEIS status is being given to schools on the basis of exam results and was clearly outlined by him. It is not exclusively based on exam results but it is almost. These scholarships are being provided on socio-economic criteria. It should be the other way around. It should be socio-economic qualifying criteria for DEIS. It is the poorest schools that should be in DEIS and not the ones that achieve the best exam results due to their teachers being better. It is disappointing. The people who deserve these scholarships, particularly those with an excellent grasp of the Irish language living inside or outside of a Gaeltacht, should be given the opportunity of availing of grants that were established by Pádraig Pearse in 1916.