Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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139. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to introduce a fair appeals system for schools not admitted to the DEIS programme. [28482/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The identification of schools for receipt of additional resources under the DEIS programme is informed by a scientific data based model which assesses levels of disadvantage in individual schools based on the pupil cohort of the school.  

The key data sources used in the DEIS identification 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 not only single parent rate, but those related to demographic growth, dependency ratios, education levels, 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.

A detailed document explaining the methodology used in the Identification process is available on the Department’s website at.

DEIS Plan 2017 provides for the verification of the information used to access the level of disadvantage of a school. This process involves a check of the school data used and a check of the application of the data  by my Department to ensure that no administrative errors have occurred. Therefore, there is no appeals system as such for schools but they can contact the Department to ensure their data is up to date or check the online database (POD and PPOD).