Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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301. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to confirm the number of post-primary schools currently operating without a home school liaison co-ordinator; and the estimated first- and full-year cost of expanding the programme to 10 additional post-primary schools. [42388/24]

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 the universal supports available to all schools, the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme is the 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 2022, I announced the single largest expansion of the DEIS programme. This benefited 361 schools. 1 in 4 students and 30% of schools are now included in the DEIS programme.

The expansion added an additional €32 million to my Department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall allocation for the programme to over €180 million.

There are some 672 post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. Currently, 228 DEIS post-primary schools are included in the HSCL scheme, of which 177 schools have full posts and 51 schools are sharing a post.

In addition, a pilot project to support Traveller and Roma pupils, under the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy, is in operation in 4 locations with 1 HSCL Coordinator assigned in each location. A further 10 HSCL Coordinators are employed under Dormant Accounts funding to support attendance, participation and retention among Traveller and Roma students, across 14 non-DEIS post-primary schools.

The 2024 average salary cost for a post-primary teachers is :

• Excluding Employer PRSI €64,070
• Including Employer PRSI €70,140