Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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372. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will clarify the position of the DEIS programme in view of recent errors being discovered in the DEIS list. [13897/17]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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373. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the recently-discovered error with the DEIS list was first discovered. [13898/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 372 and 373 together.

I take it that the Deputy is referring to the recent re-categorisation of 4 DEIS primary schools as between Urban and Rural.

At the outset, it is important to note that the categorisation of a school as between urban or rural is related to its geographical position and is not related to the assessed level of concentrated disadvantage of its pupil cohort.

The categorisation of schools included in the list announced on 13th February as between urban and rural was based on CSO Electoral Division Strata. However, in some cases these Electoral Divisions are very large and, in a small number of cases, make borderline decisions on a school's designation more difficult. While the schools involved were correctly designated in terms of the ED boundaries, closer consideration of their designation suggested certain anomalies in terms of their urban/rural categorisation and a requirement for further examination.

Following further examination and external technical advice, my Department has decided to use an alternative boundary classification known as “settlements” which better take into account growth in population and the expansion of urban areas over time. Settlements with a population of 1,500 or more are classified as urban, while those with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural. My Department is satisfied that this UN-recognised designation is the most appropriate method of categorising schools as between urban and rural.

As with all aspects of the new DEIS identification process, this aspect of school categorisation will be kept under review and updated as and when improved data becomes available.

I wish to assure the Deputy that all new schools included in the DEIS Programme on February 13th last have been examined in the context of this new classification criteria and the four schools affected have been contacted by my Department of the change required.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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374. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline his plans to make further revisions to the DEIS list. [13899/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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DEIS is my Department's main policy initiative to tackle educational disadvantage. The DEIS Plan for 2017 sets out our vision for future intervention in the critical area of social inclusion in education policy.

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 my 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. This includes 15 new Urban Band 1 schools, 30 Urban Band 2 schools raised to Urban Band 1 status, 51 new Rural DEIS schools and 13 new Post Primary DEIS schools.

It is important to note that the school details published on 13th February represent a first step in the application of the assessment process to support pupils in schools with the highest concentrations of disadvantage. I am fully aware that there are further schools whose concentrated level of disadvantage may not be at the highest level, but may nevertheless be at a level which warrants additional supports for pupils under DEIS.

However, as noted in the DEIS Plan, the implementation of a new objective central data-based model of identifying levels of disadvantage within school populations will be followed by a further programme of work to create a more dynamic model where levels of resource more accurately follow the levels of need identified by that model.

Once this work has been completed, consideration will be given to extending DEIS supports to a further group of schools as resources permit.

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.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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375. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline the revised methodology he is using to assess schools to enter the DEIS scheme; and the way it differs from the original methodology. [13900/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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DEIS is my Department's main policy initiative to tackle educational disadvantage. The DEIS Plan for 2017 sets out our vision for future intervention in the critical area of social inclusion in education policy.

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

Two separate approaches were adopted in the 2005 process for the assessment of schools across the Primary and Post Primary sectors. At Primary level a survey of school Principals was used while at Post-Primary, a combination of data from the DES Post-Primary Pupils Database, including school-level retention rates, together with exam achievement data and exam fee waiver data, which indicated that students had a medical card, from the State Examinations Commission (SEC) was used. The objective of both methods was to capture the socio-economic variables that collectively best predict the risk of educational disadvantage.

The revised identification process for DEIS 2017 is significantly more robust. The key data sources 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, dependency ratios, education levels, single parent rate, overcrowding, social class, occupation and unemployment rates. 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. This data is applied uniformly across all schools in the country. Through the use of centrally held data, schools were not required to submit an application for inclusion in the programme.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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376. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will clarify the response to Parliamentary Question No. 18 of 1 March 2017 and indicate whether the research document referred to in that question was considered by his Department in producing the criteria upon which applications for DEIS would be evaluated (details supplied). [13905/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware from my reply of the 1st March of the key data sources considered and used in the new identification process. This is based on objective data sourced from the CSO and from the Department's POD and PPOD database, and not on research provided by schools or other bodies. Unlike previous rounds of DEIS allocation, this allocation on this occasion did not depend on applications from schools or information gathered by other bodies, but purely on objective data. As such, the research document referred to was not an input into the decision-making process. However, the Department is aware of the document and its findings.

Further information on the development of the new identification model is contained in the report of the DEIS Review Process which can be found on my Department's website at .

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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377. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to set out the number of schools serving the 51 areas designated under the RAPID programme not designated as DEIS schools; and the name of those schools. [13906/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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DEIS is my Department's main policy initiative to tackle educational disadvantage. The DEIS Plan for 2017 sets out our vision for future intervention in the critical area of social inclusion in education policy.

A key element of DEIS Plan 2017 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 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, dependency ratios, education levels, single parent rate, overcrowding, social class, occupation and unemployment rates. 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.This data is applied uniformly across all schools in the country. Through the use of centrally held data, schools were not required to submit an application for inclusion in the programme.

It is important to note that a school's rate of disadvantage is based on the student cohort attending the school, and not where the school itself is located. Accordingly, the RAPID designation was not considered to be an appropriate variable for the identification of schools for participation in DEIS.

The location of the 51 areas designated under the RAPID Programme can be found on the Pobal website at the following link: .

The list of all Post Primary schools in Ireland is available on my Department's website at the following link:

.

The list of all Primary Schools in Ireland is available on my Department's website at the following link:

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The list of DEIS schools for the 2016/2017 school year can be found on my Department's website at the following link:

.

Details of the new DEIS schools included in the list published on 13th February 2017 can also be found on my Department's website at the following link:

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