Written answers
Thursday, 26 March 2026
Department of Education and Skills
Schools Administration
Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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264. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will consider reclassifying schools (details supplied) as DEIS Band 1, given the needs of students at the schools; if she will agree to a review; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23321/26]
Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Addressing educational disadvantage is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth. The DEIS programme is a key policy initiative for addressing educational disadvantage at school level.
The DEIS Strategy to 2035 and it’s first three-year implementation plan 2026 – 2028 were published by the Minister for Education and Youth, on the 25th of March. The focus over the life of the strategy is on improving the opportunities and achievement levels of children at risk of educational disadvantage, developing more innovative approaches to tackling educational disadvantage, and working towards a more flexible system of supports to ensure that a school can receive the right support at the right time.
The strategy promotes equity across all schools and is supported by a full-year annual investment of €48 million. This is the biggest?full-year?investment?in targeted supports to address educational disadvantage since the establishment of the DEIS programme in 2006. In total, the measures announced will deliver over 400 additional roles, including approximately 350 teacher posts, benefiting approximately 700 schools nationwide.
The DEIS Strategy to 2035 sets out a whole-system, evidence-based approach to addressing educational disadvantage in all schools. It recognises that disadvantage exists across the system and aims to ensure every child and young person is supported to reach their full potential.
Immediate actions in the strategy include:
- The implementation of a new DEIS Plus scheme for 121 schools to address barriers to success and provide targeted supports at school level, where there is an extremely high concentration of children at risk of educational disadvantage in a school.
- Expansion of Home School Community Liaison supports to strengthen the connection between home, school and the community. This includes providing access to HSCL supports to some schools not in the DEIS programme and to some DEIS rural schools.
- Increases to DEIS grant funding for schools where the demographic profile of the children in the school has changed.
- Strengthened wellbeing, inclusion and community partnership supports.
- Increases in leadership posts to enhance leadership allocations
- Additional community link workers to work with minority groups.
- Increased capitation funding and additional supports for teacher professional learning.
- The development of a robust monitoring and evaluation framework with annual reporting.
The strategy aims to move to a more flexible model of supports, meaning that over time schools will get the resources that reflect their level of need at a particular time, to better reflect the ever-changing nature of our schools. Therefore, there is a focus on improving the data on which decisions are made in relation to the allocation of resources and the need for banding will be reviewed over time. Instead of cut offs between bands the aim is that resources will be allocated where and when they are needed. These changes to the resource allocation model will be carefully managed over the lifetime of the strategy and any potential impacts on the educational outcomes of children and young people will be closely monitored.
The Department will continue to engage with schools, education partners and stakeholders throughout implementation. Annual progress reports will track delivery of the strategy and DEIS Plus scheme. Further information is available at gov.ie/deis.
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