David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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792. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her Department’s plans, if any, to extend DEIS status to a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1977/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. Supplementing these universal supports, the DEIS programme provides a targeted and equitable way to address concentrated educational disadvantage that promotes equity across the primary and post-primary sector.

Last March, I was glad to be able to announce a major expansion of the DEIS programme. For the first time since 2017, the programme has been significantly expanded to include an additional 322 schools. This means that the DEIS programme now supports over 240,000 in over 1,200 schools addressing educational disadvantage. The recent expansion will add an additional €32million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation on the programme to €180million.

Schools that were identified for inclusion in the programme were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified 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. A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie at www.gov.ie/en/publication/a3c9e-extension-of-deis-to-further-schools/#how-schools-were-selected-for-inclusion-in-deis.

I do however recognise that there are children at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Therefore, it is important to note that the recent extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one phase of work in my vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. Work is underway to explore the allocation of supports to schools, including those that are not in the DEIS programme, to assist students at risk of educational disadvantage to achieve their potential in education. This work will involve engagement with relevant stakeholders over the coming months.