Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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68. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department will engage directly with a school (details supplied) in terms of sanctioning a home school community liaison post for the school in order to help increase attendance, retention targets and educational outcomes among students and ease the administrative burden on the principal and staff; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32877/25]

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.

My department invests over €180 million annually to provide additional supports to almost 1,200 schools in the DEIS programme which supports approximately 260,000 students.

Schools that were included in the most recent expansion of 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 at Extension of DEIS to further schools.

The DEIS programme 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, extra resources must be targeted as closely as possible at those students with the greatest level of need. The school referred to by the Deputy is not in the DEIS programme.

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.

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, and any expansion to the role of the HSCL coordinator will be examined in the context of the new plan. 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.