Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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620. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a school (details supplied) in County Clare will be considered for a DEIS band status following a recommendation from a DEIS inspector who visited the school in 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17288/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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A detailed analysis of school enrolment data and the latest data available from Census 2016, using the HP Deprivation Index, has been carried out by members of the DEIS Technical Group. This group contains representatives of the Department’s Statistics and Social Inclusion Units, the Inspectorate and the Educational Research Centre.

My Department commenced a consultation process with education stakeholder representatives on the technical aspects and implementation of the model, and work is ongoing on final elements of the model.

It is envisaged that this will then provide the basis for development of a DEIS resource allocation system to match resources to identified need. Until this work is complete, it is not intended to extend the DEIS programme to any further schools.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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621. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 2054 of 24 March 2021, if she will review the qualifying criteria for DEIS given that schools that should qualify are been excluded for reasons outside their control, in view of the expected delay in updating the Pobail information; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17309/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Following the DEIS Review process, and informed by consultation with education partners, my Department introduced an objective statistics based model for identifying school for inclusion in the DEIS programme. The key data sources for the new model are the latest available school enrolment data from the POD and PPOD systems and the latest data available from Census 2016 under the HP Deprivation Index. The HP Deprivation Index is increasingly used by Government Departments and Agencies to more effectively allocate resources.

A detailed analysis of the data has been carried out by members of the DEIS Technical Group. This group contains representatives of the Department’s Statistics and Social Inclusion Units, the Inspectorate and the Educational Research Centre. My Department has commenced a consultation process with education stakeholder representatives on the technical aspects and implementation of the model, and work is now ongoing on final elements of the model.

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. It is envisaged that this will then provide the basis for development of a DEIS resource allocation system to match resources to identified need.

Until this work is complete, it is not intended to extend the DEIS programme to any further schools.