Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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760. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost to designate an additional 10 schools as DEIS band 2; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31152/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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DEIS – Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools is the main policy initiative of my Department to address educational disadvantage at school level. My Department will spend over €150million on supports for schools under the DEIS programme in 2021. This also includes in the region of €16 million which will be provided to schools in the form of a DEIS grant for the 2021/22 school year.

In the 2020/21 school year there are 887 schools in the DEIS Programme serving 185,000 pupils (689 primary and 198 post primary).

The full list of supports available to DEIS schools, including DEIS Band 2 schools, is available on my Department's website at the following link:

It is not possible to definitively provide the total cost of expanding the DEIS programme to include a further 10 DEIS Band 2 primary schools as the costs will vary from school to school depending on enrolment and the levels of disadvantage in individual schools.