Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The DEIS plan for 2017 sets out the Department's vision for education for better opportunities for those communities at risk of disadvantage and social inclusion. The plan, based on a review of the DEIS programme, is to implement a robust framework identification for schools for effective resource allocation to improve the learning experience and outcomes of pupils in DEIS schools and to support and foster best practice in schools through interagency collaborations. DEIS is about delivering equality of opportunity in schools and prioritising educational needs of children and young people in disadvantaged communities from preschool through to second level education between the ages of three and 18. There are two primary schools in my area, Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, a girls' school and Bishop Foley memorial school, a boys' school.Sons and daughters from the same families attend these schools. I could give many examples from Carlow, Tullow and Bagenalstown where that is happening. One has two schools side by side where the same families are sending their children and one is a DEIS school, while the other is not. There is no need for this to happen and I cannot understand why it is allowed.

The proposal to use postcodes will not work either as the lack of a local authority building in recent years means that many social welfare dependent families are living in private estates under the rent assistance scheme. Postcodes will not reflect the true extent of social welfare dependent families using schools. I suggest a combination of postcodes and social welfare data would provide a truer reflection of the reality. Tullow and Bagenalstown definitely include disadvantaged areas, for example, but no work has been done in the past few years to zone areas as disadvantaged. This really needs to be looked at.

The review in 2017 extended the programme, but this extension was only the same addition. In my area of Carlow-Kilkenny which includes Bagenalstown only one school was accepted into the DEIS programme. The manner in which schools are identified needs to change and the DEIS programme needs to be extended to include more schools to support vulnerable pupils in areas of disadvantage to give them the best chance in life. The new identification model has identified that there are disadvantaged schools which were not previously included in the DEIS programme and that their level of disadvantage was significantly higher than that of many schools already included in the programme. What the new programme indicates is that there are schools that are more disadvantaged that are not getting into the programme and that there is no help for them. That is unacceptable. We now live in a multicultural society with language barriers, but this issue is not being addressed by the Minister. However, I notice that new schools are automatically classed as DEIS schools. I ask the Minister to ensure all schools which have applied for DEIS status, particularly in disadvantaged areas, will be looked at in a new programme. I represent my area across Carlow, Tullow and Bagenalstown, as some from Kilkenny have. This has done nothing for schools which are in disadvantaged areas and which are in urgent need but which have been forgotten.