2026-06-10

We now have Deputies Paul Murphy, Ciarán Ahern and Seán Crowe to the Minister for Education and Youth to discuss the exclusion of St. Dominic's National School, Tallaght, from the DEIS plus programme. There are three names on it. If only two Deputies are speaking, we will split it half-and-half with two minutes each.

Apologies from Deputy Crowe who supports this issue but cannot be here this morning. I welcome the DEIS plus scheme. It can make a real difference for children in school communities with high levels of educational disadvantage. The extra resources will make a real difference. There are other issues around the country but we are raising a particular issue regarding a school which is excluded from the current scheme. It has appealed that. It seems to highlight a flaw in the methodology which is primarily based, as far as I understand it, on the deprivation index. Therefore, it can miss the level of granularity which means that for some schools, the level of deprivation that was reflected in their school community is not fully captured by that data. St. Dominic's National School in Tallaght is one such school. It is one of the largest DEIS band 1 schools in the country with 431 pupils. There are about 50 different nationalities represented. It is a really fantastic school and a great place for kids to learn but it definitely could do with the extra resources. One simple example is that in the area served by St. Dominic's is Tallaght village, which would not qualify as an area of particularly high deprivation. However, within this area, there is an IPAS centre and a homeless hub. Multiple children from both these places are going to the school. Many kids who are coming in are in homeless housing assistance payment, HAP, accommodation or are kids from lone parent families with high levels of intergenerational educational disadvantage. The school community is worried that it certainly was not captured at the first step and needs to be captured on appeal stage so that it gets DEIS plus status.

To echo those comments, this is something that has joint political support across our constituency. We have worked constructively with the Minister of State before and we welcomed his engagement on the issues related to schools in Dublin South-West. DEIS plus is clearly very welcome and many schools in Dublin South-West have already benefited from it in the first round of applications. We are asking for this for St. Dominic's school which, as Deputy Murphy said, is a fabulous school in the heart of Tallaght serving 50 different nationalities. It already caters for two special classes and is opening an additional two in the coming year. It is a DEIS urban band 1 school, arguably one of the largest in the country, and is appealing the Department's decision not to include it in the DEIS plus first-round allocations. It has numerous reasons for doing that. Primarily, it seems that the methodology applied by the Department is very data-driven and is supposed to be objective, but possibly in sticking to so much data, some of the subtlety and the local knowledge are lost that would be involved in these kind of applications. What the school is saying is that the school itself and maybe the addresses of the students in the schools are not necessarily in the most deprived areas, strictly speaking, from a geographical point of view, including the conditions and situations in which the students are living and coming into the school. The school takes from a very wide catchment, including from as far away as Citywest and the Citywest Hotel. Those students are in deprived situations and that data and that sort of subtlety are not captured by the Department's model. We are supporting the school's appeal for DEIS plus status and we would ask that the Minister of State would also give that significant consideration.

I compliment the way both Deputies work across political divides in terms of education and I will continue to liaise with them. We might not turn water into wine at every juncture but we certainly will try. Addressing educational disadvantage and ensuring that every child and young person can achieve their full potential are key priorities for me and the Minister for Education and Youth. The introduction of DEIS plus represents the most significant expansion of targeted education support since the establishment of the DEIS programme. The scheme is designed to provide enhanced supports to a small cohort of schools with the highest concentration of children and young people experiencing persistent and intergenerational disadvantage. The Deputies raised the issue of St. Dominic's National School in Tallaght. I acknowledge the strong work being undertaken by the principal, all of the team and the wider school community in supporting pupils and families. It is important to stress that although the school was not identified under the DEIS plus programme, it does not mean that disadvantage is not present within the school community. St. Dominic's National School remains a DEIS urban band 1 school and continues to receive significant range of supports available under the programme, including reduced class sizes, enhanced staffing supports and full home school liaison provision. DEIS plus schools were identified using a nationally consistent and evidence-based model developed using pupil-level administrative data and a range of indicators associated with persistent and intergenerational disadvantage. These indicators include deprivation level, Traveller and Roma identity and children residing in State-funded emergency accommodation and international protection accommodation. The model examines enrolment data across the previous three academic years to ensure consistency and fairness in its application nationally. I recognise that the local school communities can experience significant and complex challenges that are deeply felt by people's families and staff, however, in establishing a national scheme such as DEIS plus, it is essential that the same evidence-based criteria are applied consistently across all schools to ensure fairness and equality of treatment throughout the education system. The scheme is intentionally highly targeted. Schools that have been included in the scheme have been assessed as having a concentration of disadvantage significantly above the national average and at the highest level nationally. While many similar schools clearly serve children and families experiencing disadvantage, the DEIS plus programme is targeted at those with the very highest concentration of students at risk of education disadvantage. As the Deputies will be aware, the appeal process is currently under way for schools that were not satisfied with the outcome following the application of the DEIS plus identification model to their enrolment data. St. Dominic's National School has submitted an appeal under the process and I would be very mindful that it is not appropriate for me to comment on the specifics of any individual school appeal while the process remains ongoing. All appeals are subject to a technical review process in line with the criteria set out by the Department with independent oversight provided through an independent appeals panel. It is anticipated that the schools will be informed of the outcome of the appeals process by the end of June 2026. The Department and I continue to engage with school communities and education stakeholders regarding the implementation of the DEIS strategy to 2035 and the range of supports available to schools serving communities experiencing educational disadvantage.

We absolutely accept there need for objective criteria. That is not in doubt. The question is whether we have objective criteria that capture the reality beyond simply the geographical deprivation index. It is not entirely clear. I do not think a list of the criteria has been published - if a school is above this, it is in but if a school is below this, it is out. The school has appealed. There is a limit in the appeals process because the only basis on which the school could really appeal was to update the Primary Online Database about its pupils and then say it had done that. It obviously hopes that this is enough to put it over the line but there are flaws even there. If the school had pupils who were in it two years ago and who should be captured but who are now in a different school, it is not technically able to update their addresses because they are now registered elsewhere. Therefore, that is not being captured in the appeal and the school does not have a chance to put forward all these arguments. I think they have been submitted to the Minister of State in parliamentary questions in terms of the points about homeless hubs and IPAS so, hopefully, they can be taken into account.

I thank the Minister of State for his engagement. The appeals process itself is basically based on the Primary Online Database, which is very rigid and does not really allow for any subtlety or colour to be given. Part of what we are doing today is giving the Minister of State an insight into how the school works and into the background of the students there. The school desperately needs the resources that DEIS would bring to allow it to have a well-being and a trauma teacher and an administrative deputy principal because like staff in so many schools around the country, the staff in the school are working to the pin of their collar and the students would hugely benefit from the additional resources that DEIS plus would bring, so we are asking the Minister of State to do it. One thought I will leave the Minister of State with is that when Deputy Murphy and I visited the school a couple of days ago, there were food and snack baskets at the door and they are not just used by the students but by the parents.

I accept that engagement by all political representatives with regard to school communities in disadvantaged areas is hugely important because education is a fundamental. It can determine the trajectory of someone whether he or she is in a disadvantaged area or elsewhere. I do understand that the Deputies have a real and genuine engagement within the education sector. Although St. Dominic's National School was not identified for inclusion in DEIS plus, that does not diminish in any way the challenges faced by the school communities and the outstanding work done there by the school leadership and all of the team working in the school and dealing with disadvantage. Due to the appeals process, the Deputies will understand that it is important for me not to comment on that process right now and I do not intend to. The criteria set down very early on aimed to make sure that we were targeting the most disadvantaged communities across the country. The resources we were putting in - there are significant resources in DEIS plus and indeed the entire DEIS programme - are to ensure that disadvantage is dealt with within the communities. A number of Deputies have raised issues about the criteria but they are transparent. Deputy Ahern spoke about them not reflecting some of the things that are outside of them but, in the first instance, it is important that the appeals process is dealt with and that it is brought to a conclusion as early as possible. We are hopeful that decision will be taken by the end of June 2026, so the school will have certainty for next year. I do understand that there is disadvantage in other communities that has not been captured but we are targeting resources in the best possible way.