Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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16. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to immediately include a school (details supplied) under the delivering equality of opportunity in schools scheme and in whatever interim arrangements are in place pending a decision on the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10832/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I understand that the school to which the Deputy refers was established on 1 September 2010 and has been the subject of a series of representations to my Department seeking its inclusion in DEIS.

These representations were unsuccessful as no school has been admitted to the DEIS programme since 2009. The decision not to admit further schools to the programme was taken in light of the prevailing economic climate and consequential budgetary constraints. It is important to note that no schools have been included in the programme since that date, irrespective of the individual circumstances at issue.

The Deputy may be aware that a process to review the DEIS Programme is currently underway. The overall scope of the review is to assess the existing DEIS Programme in the context of evaluations to date and any relevant policy and other developments in order to inform future policy to tackle educational disadvantage.

All aspects of the DEIS programme are being considered including the identification of schools. A Technical Advisory Group is examining available data sources in order to develop an improved identification process for the allocation of resources in the future. I envisage that a new identification process, when available, will enable all schools to be considered for inclusion in a future framework for the allocation of additional resources to address educational disadvantage.

The majority of the review work programme is scheduled for completion by the end of the current school year. In the meantime my focus, and that of my Department, is on maintaining current DEIS supports while the review process is underway.

Accordingly, pending the outcome of the review process I do not propose to make any changes to the current programme, including the addition of further schools or any other 'interim' arrangements.