Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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263. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her views on a request from a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25601/23]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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281. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will respond to concerns and proposals raised by a local principal (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25885/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 263 and 281 together.

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 the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is a key policy initiative of my Department to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level in a targeted and equitable way across the primary and post-primary sector.

In March last year, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 361 schools. The programme now includes over 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. This means 1 in 4 of all students are now supported in the programme.

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 DEIS identification process is based on the principle of concentrated disadvantage and the proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school. The DEIS identification model aimed to identify those schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage or the highest proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds within a school using the school's enrolment data and national census data as represented by the Pobal HP Deprivation index which is publicly available.

Schools are identified for inclusion in the DEIS programme based on their standardised disadvantage score. Schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage are included in the DEIS programme, with those urban primary schools having the very highest levels of disadvantage being assigned to Urban Band 1.

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

In accordance with Circular 0019/22 schools that were not satisfied with the outcome following the application of the DEIS identification model to their school enrolment data were provided with the opportunity to have that outcome reviewed.

St Oliver's National School benefited as a new additional school to the DEIS programme and was categorised as Urban Band 2. Having been informed of this in March 2022 St Oliver's appealed seeking Urban band 1 status. Unfortunately the appeal from St Oliver's NS was unsuccessful as they did not meet the necessary criteria.

The DEIS appeals process was applied fairly across all appellants, the window for appeals has now closed and the results are final. My Department will continue to support schools to deliver high quality, inclusive teaching and learning to students and young learners.

The extension of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one component of work in my vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. While the DEIS programme supports those schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage, I also recognise that there are students at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools. Since June 2020, and over the past three budgets, I have secured funding to provide measures to support children in this regard. As part of Budget 2023, I announced over €50 million to provide free books to primary school pupils within the free education scheme from next September. I have also further improved the staffing schedule for all primary schools to 23:1, the lowest it has ever been.

Following the National Census 2022 held in April 2022 it is envisaged that an updated HP Deprivation Index will be generated by Pobal and will be available in Q3 of 2023. My Department will engage with Pobal in relation to this process. The updated HP Deprivation Index, when available, will be considered by my Department to help inform future resource allocation to tackle educational disadvantage.

The next phase of work will consider all schools, within and outside the DEIS programme and explore the overall allocation of resources to schools to tackle educational disadvantage. Part of this programme of work will involve consultation with relevant stakeholders over the coming months.

Following the publication of the Department of Justice Scoping Report on Community Safety and Wellbeing in Drogheda (Geiran Report) in March 2021, my Department assigned additional resources on a temporary basis to three primary schools in Drogheda for whom the report had recommended. St Oliver N.S was not referenced in the report as having these same requirements. The report recommended support for these three schools ‘Due to the unique position and situation obtaining in St. Brigid’s and St. Patrick’s NS, St. Joseph’s CBS, and Presentation NS’. The supports provided to the listed three schools are outside of the DEIS programme and are part of a cross-Government approach as recommended in the report.