Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent)
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244. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will address the urgent health and safety concerns at a school (details supplied); if she will provide funding for the installation of safety equipment, as outlined, to ensure the safety of all pupils and staff; and if she will consider granting Urban DEIS 1 status to the school to address the various challenges faced by the school, including poor infrastructure, insufficient playground space, inadequate ICT resources, and high levels of deprivation among the pupil population, to enhance educational outcomes and provide better support for the school community; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8868/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the purpose of the Emergency Works Scheme (EWS) is to provide funding specifically for unforeseen emergencies. It does so by ensuring the availability of funding for urgent works to those schools that are in need of resources as a result of an emergency situation.

An emergency is deemed to be a situation which poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or the environment, which is sudden, unforeseen and requires immediate action, and in the case of a school, if not corrected would prevent the school or part thereof from opening.

The EWS operates on the basis of a minimal scope works to address the emergency situation. The EWS is intended to remedy an emergency situation and usually provides only an interim measure until a permanent solution can be delivered under the Summer Works Scheme (SWS) which deals with upgrade works to the school.

It is open to any school that considers may have an issue that qualifies as an emergency to submit an EWS application via the Esinet system.

Separately, 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.

Following the largest expansion of the DEIS programme to date in 2022, the programme now includes in the region of 1,200 schools and supports approximately 260,000 students. This expansion added an additional €32million to the department’s expenditure on the DEIS programme from 2023, bringing the overall allocation for the programme to over €180million.

The DEIS programme is targeted at schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage. Schools that were included in the programme in 2022 were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model was applied fairly and equally to all schools. A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie.

Schools were 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.

The DEIS Plan is based on the premise that in order to have the maximum possible impact on providing opportunities for students most at risk of educational disadvantage, then extra resources need to be targeted as closely as possible at those students with the greatest level of need. This will involve further development of the DEIS programme to create a more dynamic resource allocation model where levels of resources more accurately follow the levels of need identified by objective data.

Over the coming months my department will work with other government departments and agencies, the education partners, and stakeholders across the education sector to develop tangible actions informed by the recommendations set out in the OECD Education for Inclusive Societies ‘Review of Resourcing Schools to Address Educational Disadvantage in Ireland' (2024). These actions will aim to build on the success of the DEIS programme through the development of a dynamic resource allocation model that can respond to changing levels of need and ensure that all children and young people in both DEIS and non-DEIS schools are supported to achieve in education.