Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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449. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to review the DEIS scheme; if new schools can make an application to be admitted to this scheme on the basis of changed circumstances; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6984/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is in the final stages of refinement of the new DEIS identification model, based on school enrolment data and the latest data available from Census 2016 using the HP Deprivation Index. A detailed quality analysis of the data has been carried out by members of the DEIS Technical Group which contains representatives of the Department’s Statistics and Social Inclusion Units, the Inspectorate and the Educational Research Centre. The work of this group is at an advanced stage and a consultation process with education stakeholder representatives on the technical aspect and implementation of this model has commenced. It is envisaged that this will then provide the basis for development of a DEIS resource allocation system to match resources to identified need.

I am confident that the culmination of this work will facilitate the ultimate aim of matching resources to identified need and will allow us to target extra resources at those schools most in need. Until this work is complete, it is not intended to extend the DEIS programme to any further schools.