Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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150. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her Department's plans to expand the role of the home school liaison roles. [14636/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tackling educational disadvantage and supporting students to fulfil their full potential in life is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth. The DEIS programme is a key policy of government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level.

My department is investing over €180 million annually to provide additional supports to almost 1,200 schools in the DEIS programme. This is additional to the universal measures including the free schoolbooks scheme that support children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage in all schools.

The Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) scheme is one of the key supports provided by my Department as part of the overall DEIS programme. Tusla Education Support Service manage the HSCL scheme on behalf of my Department. The scheme seeks to promote partnership between parents, teachers and community family support services, with a view to supporting improved attendance, participation and retention.

All DEIS urban primary schools and all DEIS post-primary schools are included in the HSCL scheme, which currently serves 687 DEIS schools, catering for approximately 207,000 children and young people. The scheme is delivered by 528 full-time HSCL coordinators, who are teachers in these schools and assigned to HSCL duties either in individual schools or in clusters of schools,

In addition to the above, 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 support attendance, participation and retention among Traveller and Roma students, across 14 non-DEIS post-primary schools.

I am committed to delivering a new DEIS Plan this year to outline my department’s overall approach to tackle educational disadvantage, and any expansion to the role of the HSCL coordinator will be examined in the context of the new Plan.