Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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182. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of extending the delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, programme by 20% in addition to the new schools announced. [27537/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, following the publication of the DEIS Review Report and DEIS Plan 2017 in February 2017, 79 new schools were included in DEIS for the first time and a further 30 schools were upgraded from Band 2 to Band 1 status. These schools have been receiving supports since September last year.  My Department currently invests over €125m annually to fund the various supports available to the 902 DEIS schools. 

The purpose of the overall suite of supports available to schools participating in the DEIS programme is to improve educational outcomes for pupils at greatest risk of not reaching their full potential by virtue of their socio-economic circumstances. A list of the supports available to DEIS Schools is available on my Department’s website at the following link;

https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Services/DEIS-Delivering-Equality-of-Opportunity-in-Schools-/DEIS-Supporting-Information/Supports-to-DEIS-Schools.html.

I wish to advise the Deputy that it is not possible to accurately estimate the cost of extending the DEIS Programme by 20%. The cost of the addition of any further schools to the programme is dependent on a number of variables, such as the rate of disadvantage of the school and number of pupils enrolled. This in turn determines the levels of supports the school receives for example whether they are entitled to a lower class size etc.