Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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302. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if DEIS status will be conferred to schools (details supplied) in County Limerick; if they will be fully amalgamated by the new academic year in September 2022. [18926/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I recently announced that from next September the DEIS programme will be extended to an additional 310 schools. 37 schools will also benefit from additional supports following reclassification. Schools were identified for inclusion in the programme through the refined DEIS identification model which is an objective, statistics based model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools.

The schools referred to by the Deputy are among the 310 additional schools to be included in the DEIS programme from September next as rural DEIS primary schools. I can confirm the newly amalgamated school will retain DEIS rural primary status from 1st September 2022.