Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides a wide range of supports to all schools to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential.

The OECD review will look at the overall Department policy with regards to resourcing schools, both DEIS and non-DEIS, to support children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage. The OECD review will be complimented by a programme of work by my Department which will consider the allocation of supports within the DEIS resource model. The review will consider the DEIS Plan's rationale which states that if we are to have the maximum possible impact on providing opportunities for students most at risk of educational disadvantage, then our extra resources must be targeted as closely as possible at those students with the greatest level of need.

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.

This recent expansion of the DEIS programme to an additional 322 schools has added an additional €32million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall Department of Education allocation for the programme to €180million. The programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 240,000 students. This means 1 in 4 of all students are now supported in the programme.

My Department is continuing to undertake work towards achieving its vision for an inclusive education system which supports all learners to achieve their potential. It also recognises that we need to target resources to those schools who need them most. That is why my Department has undertaken a programme of work to explore the allocation of resources to schools to address educational disadvantage. To support this work my Department have invited the OECD Strength Through Diversity: Education for Inclusive Societies Project to review the current policy approach for the allocation of resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage in Ireland. This review will provide an independent expert opinion on the current resource allocation model for the DEIS programme and, drawing on international examples, inform a policy approach for an equitable distribution of supplementary resources to support students at risk of educational disadvantage attending all schools, both DEIS and non-DEIS. The OECD are engaging with a range of relevant stakeholders to inform the review process as well as drawing on international examples. The OECD estimates that the review will be completed in Q2 2024.