Written answers
Tuesday, 29 July 2025
Department of Education and Skills
School Staff
Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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1300. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of providing an additional home school completion officer to a DEIS school. [44216/25]
Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Officials from my department have clarified with the deputy that he is seeking the cost of providing a Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) coordinator and a School Completion Programme (SCP) worker to a DEIS school. Tusla Education Support Service manage the SCP programme and the HSCL scheme on behalf of my department. Access to the SCP programme and the HSCL scheme is provided to all DEIS urban primary and all DEIS post-primary schools.
The SCP is one of the keys supports under my department’s DEIS programme. SCP comprises 121 projects, supporting just under 800 schools, arranged in clusters. SCP projects generally comprise of one SCP coordinator and a number of project workers and seasonal workers, based on the number of schools in the cluster and on the identified needs of the children and young people supported by the project.
The average cost to a SCP project for a coordinator is approximately €62,586 per annum and the average cost of a SCP Project Worker is approximately €48,022 per annum.
The HSCL scheme is another key support provided by my department as part of the overall DEIS programme. The HSCL scheme seeks to promote partnership between parents, teachers and community family support services, with a view to supporting improved attendance, participation and retention. It currently serves 687 DEIS schools, catering for approximately 207,000 children and young people. A HSCL Coordinator is released from teaching duties, for a maximum of five years to work intensively with, and to support, parents and guardians.
The HSCL 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.
A further 10 HSCL Coordinators posts are allocated to support attendance, participation and retention among Traveller and Roma students, across 14 non-DEIS post-primary schools. In addition, four HSCL coordinator posts established under a pilot project to support Traveller and Roma students (STAR) under the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy have been extended up to the end of the 2026/27 school year. The four HSCL coordinators will work alongside the 10 HSCLs and there will be a specific focus on the most at risk Traveller and Roma students within the STAR regions, and those schools without current HSCL support under the DEIS programme.
Over €36 million is spent annually on the pay costs of HSCL coordinators in urban primary and post-primary DEIS schools. The average teacher’s salary costs for primary and post-primary teachers are outlined in the following table.
Primary Teacher | Post Primary Teacher |
---|---|
€76,350 per annum | €78,490 per annum |
Figures are inclusive of Employer PRSI and substitution costs and are based on expenditure and teacher numbers to the end of 2024.
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