Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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64. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the discrepancy between student/teacher ratio criteria in junior and senior primary schools with DEIS Band 1 status (details supplied); if her office has received correspondence from a school principal that highlights a specific case; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21315/25]

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 and for the Government. The DEIS Programme is a key policy of Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. The DEIS programme provides a targeted range of supports and is additional to the universal supports provided to all schools.

My department is investing over €180 million annually to provide additional supports to almost 1,200 schools in the DEIS programme.

Within the DEIS programme, 306 primary schools with the highest concentrations of children at risk of educational disadvantage are included in DEIS Urban Band 1. Schools in this band receive the highest level of support available. This includes a more favourable staffing allocation, DEIS grant funding and access to the Home School Community Liaison scheme and the School Completion Programme.

The recent OECD Review of Resourcing Schools to Address Educational Disadvantage in Ireland highlighted the role of the DEIS programme in providing an education system that consistently outperforms many other OECD countries but also exhibits relative socio-economic fairness, making it one of the stronger performers globally. However, the review also highlighted that important differences in outcomes persist for students who experience high levels of deprivation.

Evidence suggests that class size reduction is an area where educational policy can have a definite positive impact on student outcomes if adequately resourced and implemented in a planned manner with junior classes prioritised. The recent literature is largely in agreement with the earlier literature in terms of conditions of effectiveness. Specifically, those most likely to benefit are children in the early grades and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Overall, evidence points to a modest increase in academic achievement with reduced class size, with the benefits being felt to a greater degree in junior classes.

The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September. The staffing process contains an appeals mechanism for schools to submit a staffing appeal under certain criteria to an independent Primary Staffing Appeals Board. Information and application forms are available in Circular 0011/2025 on the Department website.

As Minister, I am determined to close the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introduce more innovative solutions to tackle disadvantage. A new DEIS Plan will be published in 2025. This plan will focus on improving the opportunities and achievement levels of children at risk of educational disadvantage, developing more innovative approaches to tackling educational disadvantage, and working towards a more flexible system of supports to ensure that a school can receive the right support at the right time. The new DEIS Plan will be evidence-informed, based on the findings from a range of studies, research and consultation events conducted in recent years. Key to the development of the DEIS Plan is consultation with school communities and other education stakeholders. Since early 2024, the Department of Education has consulted with principals, teachers, home school community liaison coordinators, school completion programme coordinators, parents, children and young people and other departments and agencies, on tackling educational disadvantage in schools.