Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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383. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to set out the level of completion of primary online database questionnaires by parents; if completion rates are low in certain schools or in certain areas compared to other areas; and his views on low questionnaire completion rates. [20557/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Primary Online Database (POD) is a nationwide individualised database of primary schools pupils, facilitating the monitoring of educational progress as pupils move through the primary education and on to post primary. Once a year schools are asked to complete an annual census return, in which schools verify the number of pupils in their school and the details of those pupils. All primary schools completed this return for the 2016/2017 academic year.

This information is used for:

- teacher allocation and payment of capitation and other grants

- resource allocation and planning purposes

- statistical information

- register of pupils.

This data is supplied by schools and it is the responsibility of schools to ensure the quality of the data for all of the uses associated with POD.

Further information on the data collected on POD can be found on the Department's website here: .

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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384. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if, in circumstances in which primary online database questionnaires are not fully completed, this could affect a school's designation status for DEIS; and if this is considered a significant problem with the new DEIS identification and assessment by his Department. [20558/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Primary Online Database (POD) is a nationwide individualised database of primary schools pupils, facilitating the monitoring of educational progress as pupils move through the primary education and on to post primary. It is used for:

- completion of the National School Annual Census

- teacher allocation and payment of capitation and other grants

- resource allocation and planning purposes

- statistical information

- register of pupils

- centralised updating of school information.

As the Deputy is aware the identification process for assigning DEIS status has been developed using the CSO Small Area data as represented in the Haase Pratschke Index of Deprivation (HP Index) combined with DES POD and PPOD data. This data is supplied by schools and it is the responsibility of schools to ensure the quality of the data for all of the uses associated with POD, including the designation of DEIS status.