Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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197. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the detail of the criteria for admission of schools to DEIS. [8390/17]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if schools that do not qualify for the scheme will be removed from DEIS. [8391/17]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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199. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the admission criteria to DEIS have been finalised; and if not, when they will be. [8392/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 197 to 199, inclusive, together.

A key element of DEIS Plan 2017 Plan is the availability of a new identification process for the assessment of schools for inclusion in DEIS using centrally held CSO and DES data. 

The key data sources for this process are the DES Primary Online Database (POD) and Post-Primary Online (PPOD) Databases, and CSO data from the National Census of Population as represented in the Pobal HP Index for Small Areas which is a method of measuring the relative affluence or disadvantage of a particular geographical area.  Variables used in the compilation of the HP Index include those related to demographic growth, social class composition and labour market situation.  This data is combined with pupil data, anonymised and aggregated to small area, to provide information on the relative level of concentrated disadvantage present in the pupil cohort of individual schools.  Admission to the DEIS School Support Programme is based on these criteria.  Further information on the development of the identification process is available in the DEIS Review report which can be found on my Department's website at

.

This data will be updated annually to reflect new information provided by schools via POD and PPOD, and 5-yearly to reflect new Census information.  Further refinement of the model will take place on an ongoing basis to improve the accuracy of the data - for instance, schools will be encouraged to use Eircodes in data supplied to the DES school databases.

In its initial application, the new identification model has identified that there are schools in disadvantaged areas, not previously included in DEIS, whose level of disadvantage is significantly higher than many schools already in the programme.  Accordingly, we are moving as a first step to include these schools in the DEIS School Support Programme. 

Schools included in the list published by the Department on 13th February are those whose level of concentrated disadvantage has been identified as being at the same level as the current DEIS category for schools serving the highest concentrations of disadvantage.  Schools which have not been included at this stage are those which have not been identified as having the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage amongst their pupil cohort.

As noted in the DEIS Plan 2017, a further programme of work will take place over the course of the 2017/18 school year to create a more dynamic resource allocation model to more closely match resources with identified educational needs in individual schools.

In delivering on the DEIS Plan 2017 we must be conscious that there are ongoing changes in demographics which may be more marked in some areas than others.  Populations in some areas have changed considerably since schools were originally evaluated for inclusion in DEIS in 2006.  The new model may reveal that some schools currently included in DEIS have a level of disadvantage within their school population much lower than that in some schools not included within DEIS. If this turns out to be the case, then we must consider whether it is fair that those schools continue receiving these additional resources, using resources that may be more fairly allocated to the schools with greater levels of disadvantage.