Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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294. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the name of each primary and post-primary school that has been granted DEIS band 1 and DEIS band 2 status, respectively, in every year from 2019 to 2025; and the number of SNAs per school, in each of the years 2019 to 2025. [52810/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tackling education disadvantage and helping students reach their full potential is a key priority for the Minister for Education and Youth. The DEIS programme is a key policy of Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. Currently, the DEIS programme supports almost 1,200 primary and post-primary schools, reaching approximately 260,000 students, with an annual investment of over € 180 million.

The Minister is committed to narrowing the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introducing innovative solutions to address disadvantage. A new DEIS plan will be published this year. Details of the new DEIS plan are currently being developed in collaboration with an advisory group.

The most recent expansion of the DEIS programme occurred in 2022 following the previous expansion in 2017. Schools included in the expansion 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. 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. At primary level schools are assigned to DEIS Urban Band 1, DEIS Urban 2 or DEIS Rural based on the location of the school and based on its level of disadvantage. Those urban primary schools having the very highest levels of disadvantage being assigned to Urban Band 1. Post-primary schools are not banded; they are either DEIS or non-DEIS schools.

The link below has the list of schools added following the expansion of the programme in 2022. A list of all schools which are currently in the DEIS programme is available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/policy-information/deis-delivering-equality-of-opportunity-in-schools/, in the DEIS Schools 2025-2026 list.

SNA allocations for all schools, including those with DEIS status are published on the NCSE website and available at the following link: ncse.ie/set-hours-and-sna-allocations