Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 157: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he has any plans to extend DEIS to any further schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12254/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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While a key priority for me is to continue to prioritise and target resources at schools with the most concentrated levels of educational disadvantage, the current economic climate and the challenge to meet significant targets on reducing public expenditure, particularly given the upward pressures on teacher numbers and in the context of operating under a fixed ceiling on teacher numbers, affords no capacity to provide for additionality to the DEIS programme.

DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) includes a commitment for ongoing evaluation of the programme to ensure successful implementation and appropriate measurement of outcomes at both local and national level. The Educational Research Centre has undertaken this ongoing evaluation, on behalf of my Department, the aim of which is to monitor the implementation of the programme and assess its impact on students and schools at primary and post primary levels.

In addition, the Inspectorate of my Department conducted evaluations of planning in a sample of 36 DEIS schools, 18 primary and 18 post-primary. A national composite report on the effectiveness of DEIS planning in primary and post-primary schools has been completed and this report along with the ERC report were published in January 2012. My Department will fully consider these evaluation reports before any decisions can be made regarding the future of DEIS.