Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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502. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she expects the implementation of DEIS Plus in the fourth quarter of 2025. [55315/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tackling educational disadvantage and helping students reach their full potential is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth. 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.

I am 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 before the end of the year, which will include the DEIS Plus scheme.

I have secured €48 million in Budget 2026 for the new DEIS Plan and DEIS Plus scheme. The DEIS Plus scheme will provide additional support to schools with the highest levels of need, in line with the Government’s commitment. It will target a small cohort of schools with high concentrations of children and young people experiencing intergenerational disadvantage where there is a significant gap in outcomes and there are barriers to those children and young people achieving their potential.

The details of the DEIS Plus scheme are currently being finalised within an overall programme of work to tackle educational disadvantage and will be outlined in the new DEIS Plan. The details of the DEIS plan, including the DEIS plus scheme will be published before the end of 2025.