Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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736. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to urgently address the urgent need of further supports for a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [58533/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30 September.

Due to falling enrolments, the school referred to by the Deputy lost a teaching post and its administrative principal status this year.

The staffing schedule at primary level operates in a clear and transparent manner and treats all similar types of schools equally. Ensuring that teaching posts are allocated consistently and fairly amongst schools is an important part of the annual allocations process. The school's current mainstream staffing is Teaching Principal and five classroom teachers. This allocation is based on the enrolment on 30 September 2024 which was 158. The school's enrolment on 30 September this year was 148. The enrolment required for a sixth classroom teacher is 164.

The staffing process contains an appeals mechanism for schools to submit a staffing appeal under certain criteria to an independent Primary Staffing Appeals Board. The school referred to by the Deputy appealed to the June meeting of the Appeals Board, but the appeal was unsuccessful.

In addition to the mainstream staffing, the school has an allocation of 82.5 Special Education hours, comprised of three fulltime teachers in the school and 7.5 hours being provided by a teacher in a shared post. The school also has 1.4 EAL (English as an Additional Language) posts.

Tackling education disadvantage and helping students reach their full potential is a key priority for the 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 strategy and introduce the DEIS Plus scheme, which will commence in 2026.

The new DEIS strategy will include a focus on developing more innovative approaches to addressing educational disadvantage in all schools 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 details of the DEIS strategy are being finalised and will be published before the end of the year. Any future allocation of overall resources will be considered within the context of the new DEIS strategy and the availability of resources.