Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael)
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I am delighted the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, is in the Chamber to deal with this matter. I ask him to immediately, not some time in the future, end the discrimination and injustice that pupils of Inver national school are experiencing by being denied the benefits offered by the DEIS scheme. The school is in a rural area with dispersed national schools. Every other school in the vicinity has DEIS status, which means they get certain educational supports so children can come through their education with a fair chance in life. Inver national school meets all the DEIS criteria, such as high unemployment, low wages and low academic standards, which it shares with the other national schools in the area.

This has been going on for 11 years. If DEIS means anything, and if we can have confidence in it supporting people in educational disadvantage and social disadvantage, something needs to be done now. The Minister of State could be the person to do that. The reality is that this school had disadvantaged status up to 2005. At this juncture, with the inception of DEIS, forms and reminders were sent out to this school to be completed but the principal failed to fill out those forms and, to this day, the pupils of the school have been missing out.Not only are the children at a disadvantage, their parents pay more for their education than any other parents in Erris. The school does not receive the same funding as other primary schools in the area. It does not receive the same book grants and it is excluded from applying for IT grants even though every other school in Erris can. The school has to pay twice the amount for visiting experts and workshops than every other primary school in the area. How can this be acceptable? Through no fault of their own, children have been at a disadvantage for a generation. This has to stop. I acknowledge a review is under way but when I was in the Dáil, I raised this issue several times. This review has been ongoing a long time and the notion that it will be concluded by December and that action will be taken next September cannot be stood over. Something needs to be done in the interim.

There is a blockage in the Department. Officials are afraid to set a precedent but this is an exceptional case. This community was ravaged by the divisions caused by the Corrib gas project with neighbours going against neighbours during a deep and bitter dispute. Over the past ten years, many of the injustices have been righted in this area. Anomalies have been removed and mistakes forgiven and corrected. Will the Minister of State and his senior Minister stand over and ameliorate one outstanding source of division, which is the discrimination the children in Inver national school have experienced for the past 11 years? There can only be one answer because other than that, the benefits of DEIS will mean nothing. Over the years, successive Ministers have lauded and praised the success of DEIS in promoting school attendance, general well-being, mental health, and outcomes with children staying in school longer. This community and these children should be given a chance. It is an exceptional case through no fault of their own. The principal who was charged with taking care of these children failed to do their duty. This cannot be left to civil servants. Action has to be taken by the Minister of the day. Successive Ministers have failed.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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As the Senator may be aware, an extensive identification process to select schools for inclusion in DEIS was conducted in 2005. This process took the form of an invitation to schools to apply to participate in the programme by way of a completed survey of their pupil cohort. This is new to me but she is correct that a number of reminders were issued to the school in question by my Department, a completed survey form was not received and, therefore, it could not be assessed for participation in the programme. Departmental officials say those are the criteria they laid down; I did not lay them down. They say on a number of occasions they contacted the school. Further, an appeal mechanism was put in place in 2006 to address the concerns of schools that did not qualify for inclusion in the DEIS programme, but regarded themselves as having a level of disadvantage sufficient to warrant their inclusion. lnver national school did not participate in that process. I do not know if the Senator is aware of that. I accept there is a difficulty with the school and based on what she has said, it should probably be included in the programme. Officials say reminders were sent on two occasions and the school did not participate in the process. The Department has no information about the school, apart from that furnished by Members when raising the issue in the Dáil and the Seanad.

Many representations were made to my predecessors on behalf of this school seeking its inclusion in DEIS. These representations were unsuccessful. No schools which were unsuccessful in the initial identification and subsequent review processes were ever admitted Into the DEIS programme. As the Senator may also be aware, a process to review DEIS, which began last year, is almost complete and it is my intention to publish a new plan for educational inclusion before the end of this year. The review is examining all aspects of DEIS, including the range and impact of different elements of the school support programme, and the potential for innovation within and between schools and its scope for increased integration of services provided by other Departments and agencies.

No new school has been included in DEIS since 2009, but now a new assessment framework is being developed using centrally held CSO and DES data for the identification of new schools for inclusion. The number of schools to be included in the programme will be determined by this proposed new identification process, which will assess all schools in the country, including those not currently participating. It is important to note that it will not be necessary under this new arrangement - this may solve the problem for the Senator - for schools to make an application as all schools, including Inver national school, will be automatically assessed. The school will not have to apply for the new assessment and it appears, based on the school's history and the Senator's contribution, it will be included. That could be sorted following the automatic assessment.

Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. In a nutshell, these children meet all the criteria and through the fault of the principal, which is a very pointed thing to say-----

Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)
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The Senator should not name anybody. We do not know who is to blame.

Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael)
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Perhaps it is time the truth was told. These children have been waiting 11 years and they cannot wait another year. Does the Minister of State think it is acceptable that children should have to wait another year and that a generation has lost out while successive Ministers stood over this? Will action be taken now even on an interim basis? I raised this issue in the Dáil and in person with the formers Ministers for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, and Ruairí Quinn, and nothing was done, which is unacceptable. Reasonable people would wonder whether we are tied up in bureaucratic red tape with officials saying a form was not submitted on time through no fault of the parents and the pupils. They would have submitted the documents. Senator Swanick will also have some knowledge of this. They have spent significant time lobbying and courting the Department for some fairness.

There needs to be an intervention, otherwise the Department is showing itself up as a bureaucratic nightmare that does not respond to the educational needs of children in a vulnerable situation. Their community has lived with the fallout of the Corrib gas project. Is it just lip service or does the DEIS programme mean something? Measures need to be taken between now and next September. I acknowledge the Minister of State is only new to this brief but he has championed people in disadvantage. I am hoping for a breakthrough because the parents and the school have had enough of being ignored. I ask the Minister of State to act.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I empathise with the Senator's comments. I do not say that to be compassionate. I understand the difficulty is that criteria were laid down for all schools to be included in DEIS and the school did not participate in the process. The school was also informed that there was an appeals mechanism in place but it did not even participate in that part of the process. I do not know why what was the case. The school was informed that an application had not been submitted and that an appeals process was in place, when it was not included, but it did not participate. Perhaps we need to know the reason for that but it is neither here or there.

The school does not have to reapply because an identification process is being undertaken. Based on what the Senator has said, which I believe, if the school meets the criteria, no assessment will have to be done. I see no reason it should not be included. I ask the Senator to meet with me in a few weeks, and if she wants to bring a representative from the school I would be delighted to meet that person. We can go through this and see if we can push it forward. If what the Senator is saying, which I completely believe, is that the school should be included then it should be. We must go past what happened and whatever errors were made in the school. The Senator is completely correct; if an error was made, or a misjudgment was made by an individual, the rest of the school should not suffer. I accept this and there is no point in me saying otherwise. I ask the Senator to bear with me for a couple of weeks, then meet me, and if she wants to bring somebody from the school I would be delighted to meet that person, to see whether we can push this forward.

Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State, that is very fair.