Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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367. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total funding provided for the Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) Scheme to Urban-Primary, Rural-Primary and Post-Primary schools currently; and the estimated cost of a 5%, 10% and 20% increase in this funding, in tabular form. [49137/26]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Tackling educational disadvantage and supporting students to fulfil their full potential in life is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth, and for the Government.

The DEIS programme is a key policy of Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level and provides a targeted range of supports to schools in addition to universal supports such as free schoolbooks and free hot school meals. My department invests over €180 million annually to provide additional supports to almost 1,200 schools in the DEIS programme which supports approximately 260,000 students.

The Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) scheme is a core element of the DEIS programme. HSCL coordinators are teachers assigned for a maximum of five years to work directly with parents, guardians, school staff and community services to strengthen engagement between home, school and the community. The overarching aim of HSCL is to improve attendance, participation and retention, particularly for children and young people experiencing educational disadvantage.

At present, the HSCL scheme operates in all schools in the DEIS Urban primary and DEIS post-primary bands supporting approximately 207,000 children and young people. The scheme is delivered by 528 full-time HSCL coordinators assigned to HSCL duties either in individual schools or in clusters of schools.

In addition to the above, a pilot project to support Traveller and Roma pupils, is in operation in 4 locations with 1 HSCL coordinator assigned in each location and a further 10 HSCL coordinators support attendance, participation and retention among Traveller and Roma students, across 14 non-DEIS post-primary schools.

The total DEIS Grant paid to primary schools for the 2025-2026 school year was €15,823,220 and the total DEIS Grant paid to post-primary schools was €5,924,183. DEIS Grants for the upcoming school year 2026/2027 will issue to schools in the coming weeks.

The information on the DEIS grant requested by the Deputy is contained in the following table:

I was pleased to recently announce a pilot project to extend HSCL provision to 130 DEIS Rural band and non-DEIS schools. This is an important opportunity to trial the extension of an important resource to additional schools and inform the future policy for the scheme.

The pilot will be monitored and evaluated to inform future planning. Any future allocation of resources, including any potential further extension of the pilot, will be considered over the lifetime of the DEIS Strategy to 2035 and in the context of available resources.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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368. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of DEIS schools involved in the Home School Community Liaison Scheme; the number of children and young people involved in the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49138/26]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Tackling educational disadvantage and supporting students to fulfil their full potential in life is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth, and for the Government.

The DEIS programme is a key policy of Government to tackle concentrated educational disadvantage at school level and provides a targeted range of supports to schools in addition to universal supports such as free schoolbooks and free hot school meals. Currently, my department invests over €180 million annually to provide additional supports to almost 1,200 schools in the DEIS programme which supports approximately 260,000 students.

The HSCL scheme is a core element of the DEIS programme and of the wider Tusla Education Support Service. HSCL coordinators are teachers assigned for a maximum of five years to work directly with parents, guardians, school staff and community services to strengthen engagement between home, school and the community. The overarching aim of HSCL is to improve attendance, participation and retention, particularly for children and young people experiencing educational disadvantage.

At present, all DEIS urban primary schools and DEIS post-primary schools are included in the HSCL scheme, which currently serves 682 DEIS schools, supporting approximately 207,000 children and young people. The scheme is delivered by 528 full-time HSCL coordinators assigned to HSCL duties either in individual schools or in clusters of schools.

In addition to the above, a pilot project to support Traveller and Roma pupils, is in operation in 4 locations with 1 HSCL coordinator assigned in each location and a further 10 HSCL coordinators support attendance, participation and retention among Traveller and Roma students, across 14 non-DEIS post-primary schools.

I was pleased to recently announce an additional pilot project to extend HSCL provision to 130 schools that are in the DEIS Rural band and outside the DEIS programme. This is an important opportunity to trial the extension of an important resource to additional schools and inform the future policy for the scheme.