Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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80. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools that lodged an appeal to be reconsidered for DEIS status; and when schools will find out whether their appeal has been successful. [23700/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Schools were identified for inclusion in the DEIS programme using the refined DEIS identification model. The model was applied to all primary and post primary schools in the State. This was the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme, benefitting 347 schools in total, at a cost of €32 million.

My Department is committed to ensuring that all schools are treated equally and fairly in the manner in which they have been identified for inclusion in the DEIS programme. Schools who were not satisfied with the outcome following the application of the DEIS identification model to their school enrolment data have been provided with the opportunity to make an appeal. Circular 0019/2022 outlining the details of the DEIS appeals process, was published on the 30th March 2022 by my Department and is available at gov.ie website. All schools were notified of the appeals process.

Schools who wished to make an appeal were afforded the opportunity to do so in line with the process outlined in the Circular. The deadline to submit an appeal was 5pm on Friday 29th April 2022.

Appeals were received from 197 schools out of 3832 mainstream primary and post primary schools in Ireland, indicating that just under 95% of schools were satisfied with the application of the model to their school enrolment data.

For the purposes of identifying schools for inclusion in the DEIS programme from September 2022, the refined 2022 DEIS identification model was applied to the enrolment returns provided by schools in the National School Annual Census for 2021/2022, which was returned via the POD and PPOD school enrolment databases.

The appeals process offered schools a chance to review their enrolment data as they had originally entered it on the school enrolment database (POD and PPOD) and to correct any errors to improve the accuracy. For example, schools could ensure that the students' address data as listed on the school enrolment database is accurate.

Schools may also request, without amending any of their POD or PPOD data, that the Department verify that the steps of the model have been applied correctly to the school’s enrolment data for the application of the refined 2022 DEIS identification model.

When all appeals have been processed, schools will be informed in writing by my Department outlining the outcome of the appeal. It is my Department’s intention that schools will be provided with the outcome promptly to allow schools time to plan for the 2022/23 school year.