John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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70. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the planned mechanisms for the distribution of the €48 million allocated to DEIS Plus; to confirm whether the funding and associated interventions will be primarily directed to schools; and if she will ensure that the allocation is not disproportionately channelled through external agencies such as Tusla, TESS, NEPS, the NCSE or the School Completion Programme, in order that schools retain appropriate autonomy in deploying supports under the new DEIS Plan. [57684/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tackling educational disadvantage and supporting students to realise their full potential in life is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth, and for the Government. 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. Budget 2026 allocates an additional €16 million in 2026, rising to €48 million in 2027, to support the implementation of the new DEIS plan and to introduce the DEIS Plus scheme commencing in 2026.

The new DEIS plan is focused on developing more innovative approaches to addressing educational disadvantage and working towards a more flexible system of support to ensure that schools can receive the right support at the right time. This will involve a more dynamic resource allocation model where levels of resources more accurately follow the levels of need identified by objective data.

The Department of Education and Youth is actively engaging with other Government departments and agencies, education partners, and stakeholders across the education sector to develop the DEIS Plus scheme with the aim of integrating and building on existing whole-of-government supports.

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 and will be outlined in the new DEIS plan, which will be published before the end of the year.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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71. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a timeline for the rollout of DEIS Plus resources; if she will consider making funding and staffing available to schools before the end of the 2025-2026 academic year to allow for adequate planning, recruitment, and implementation of supports in advance of the September 2026 start date. [57685/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Tackling educational disadvantage and helping students realise their full potential is a key priority for the 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. Budget 2026 allocates an additional €16 million in 2026, rising to €48 million in 2027, to support the implementation of the new DEIS plan and introduce the DEIS Plus scheme, which will commence in 2026.

To inform the development of the DEIS Plus scheme, a design advisory group was established including school principals, Home School Community Liaison officers, and School Completion Programme coordinators - professionals who work directly with children experiencing high intergenerational disadvantage.

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.

Schools will not be required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS Plus scheme. The process will be evidence-informed, using available data. 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.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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72. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans to embed multidisciplinary teams including counsellors, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and psychologists within DEIS Plus schools. [57686/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The 2025 Programme for Government commits to the commencement of a national therapy service in education. The Education Therapy Service (ETS), as referenced in the recently announced Education Plan, arose from this commitment. The development and delivery of this service will be informed by detailed engagement with our colleagues in the HSE and stakeholders and will build on the National Council for Special Educations’ (NCSE) work previously completed through the Educational Therapy Support Service (ETSS) and the School Inclusion Model (SIM). Officials in my Department have begun engagement with relevant Departments and agencies on the design, timelines, alignment, integrated working and costings involved to deliver this ambitious programme of work.

It is anticipated this service will commence in some special schools at a later stage in the 2025/26 school year. Further roll out of the service will occur on a phased basis with a wider roll-out in special schools, commencing in the 2026/27 school year. This service will be expanded overtime, to include special and mainstream classes. Initially the service will include the disciplines of Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy, over time further disciplines such as physiotherapy may be included.

In addition to the ETS, the NCSE have been developing an education -based therapy support service known as the ETSS. This service currently provides two strands of support to schools, Regional Therapy and Sustained In-School Therapy to both mainstream and special schools. Sustained in-school support (SIT) is provided to schools for a defined period of 18-24 months in line with the School Inclusion Model. 22 schools in the Eastern region are currently availing of this service and 28 schools in the Western region will receive support under SIT from September 25. Regional therapy support provides Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) with follow on/implementation support by NCSE therapists. The focus of this support is to build the capacity of schools and to embed the learning from TPL into their teaching practice, through In-school coaching and co-facilitation of interventions, strategies and resources, with a focus on whole school (Tier 1) and targeted/school support levels (Tier 2) of a multi-tiered system of support. Regional Therapy seminars will be available nationally for the 2025/2026 school year.

The ETS will work alongside existing services such as CDNT’s and NEPS to ensure all children and young people have the opportunity to access supports in the right place at the right time, supporting the realisation of their full potential and engagement in their education.

The Minister for Education and Youth is determined to close the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introduce more innovative solutions to tackle disadvantage. The new DEIS plan will be published this year and will include a DEIS plus scheme.

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. Budget 2026 allocates an additional €16 million in 2026, rising to €48 million in 2027 to introduce the DEIS plus scheme and support the implementation of the new DEIS plan.

The DEIS plus scheme will provide additional supports to schools with the highest level of need, in line with Government’s commitment. It will provide targeted support to a small group of schools with the highest concentration of students experiencing intergenerational disadvantage. The DEIS plus scheme is currently being developed in collaboration with principals, Home School Community Liaison coordinators, School Completion Programme workers, and children and young people from schools experiencing the highest levels of disadvantage in order to form a student-centred design approach for the DEIS plus scheme.

Details of the DEIS plus scheme and the allocation of funding for the DEIS plus scheme will be determined as part of the new DEIS plan which will be announced at the end of the year.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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73. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way in which DEIS Plus funding will support trauma-informed educational practices in schools, including the provision of additional staffing, funding and infrastructure for the development of nurture rooms and dedicated support spaces. [57687/25]

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 the 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 investment of over €180 million. Budget 2026 allocates an additional €16 million in 2026, rising to €48 million in 2027 to support the implementation of the new DEIS plan and the introduction of the DEIS plus scheme, which will be published before the end of 2025.

The DEIS plus scheme will provide additional supports to schools with the highest level of need, in line with Government’s commitment. It will provide targeted support to a small group of schools with the highest concentration of students experiencing intergenerational disadvantage. The DEIS plus scheme is currently being developed in collaboration with principals, Home School Community Liaison workers, School Completion Programme workers, and children and young people from schools experiencing the highest levels of disadvantage in order to form a student-centred design approach for the DEIS plus scheme.

The details of the DEIS Plus scheme are currently in development within an overall programme of work to tackle educational disadvantage which will be outlined in a new DEIS Plan to be published before the end of this year.