2026-05-06

We were told time and again that the identification of DEIS plus schools would be done in a transparent, robust and evidence-based way but the fact that not a single school in Drogheda has found its way into this long-awaited scheme leads me to challenge that assertion. As the Minister of State will know, Drogheda is the largest town in Ireland yet to be declared a city. It is a great place with a great spirit and yet like all urban areas, we have our problems. We have pockets of severe and deep social and economic intergenerational disadvantage. I deal with those challenges every day. This is recognised officially in the Geiran review, which I managed to have commissioned several years ago. What followed was ad hoc short-term additional teaching and support resources. When the Drogheda implementation board's mandate ended, the disadvantage and poverty did not. Schools like St. John's and St. Paul's, St. Patrick's and St. Brigid's would have expected to be included in DEIS plus. St. Joseph's, Sunday's Gate, for example, and others would have expected elevation to DEIS 1 status. Deputy Byrne and I brought all principals of local schools together when the original decision was made to review this appalling decision soon after it was made. To say we were collectively shocked at the outcome is the understatement of the year. That these schools were left behind leads me to question whether the Pobal index and the new DEIS plus identification model were used at all. The Department of education has got this badly wrong. The evidence before my own eyes, based on the work I do every single day, the levels of need and the data and the qualitative and quantitative evidence we have available all say to me that a massive error was made in this regard by the Department. The Minister of State will have the chance to correct that error. We genuinely believe a mistake has been made. While we know there is an appeals process under way, there needs to be more meaningful engagement with these schools aside from a desktop appeals process and review.

Right through last year and continuing up to this week, I met principals of DEIS schools in Drogheda on various issues. Even back then, before the announcement of the DEIS plus scheme, it was very disheartening for schools to tell me they were very worried about being forgotten once more and as it turns out, they were right. DEIS schools in Drogheda provide an incredibly supportive environment for local children to thrive in. They are at the heart of communities that have been forgotten by successive governments. After the Government's DEIS plus announcement, Drogheda schools and community leaders collectively expressed absolute outrage and devastation at the fact that not one school in the largest town in this country was included in the new DEIS plus funding scheme despite several other schools at the other end of the county being included- fair play to them - but there is a blatant imbalance here. Local principals at these schools went as far as to say there was a de facto demotion for existing DEIS schools. How can people in our area have confidence in the Department of education when they are once again being snubbed by the Government and this Department on the provision of desperately needed DEIS placement in an area that is suffering severe deprivation? The exclusion directly contradicts the 2022 Pobal HP deprivation data and recommendations from the 2021 Geiran scoping report, which have been outlined already. In a town that is used to being treated unfairly by successive governments, and I do not say that lightly, this latest snub has gone beyond the pale. Behind this wrong decision by the Government, thousands of children are being left without. It needs urgent reconsideration for all those who are being left behind.

I thank both Deputies for raising the issue. On a serious note, I always admire when constituency colleagues come together on issues of education. It shows the depth of knowledge and commitment they have to education and I have seen that in several constituencies, so I compliment them on that. Addressing the education disadvantage and ensuring every child and young person can reach their full potential is key for both me and my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Naughton. We look at this and the supports we give to children as leading to better outcomes for their lives individually, as well as for society. The DEIS plus scheme represents a significant expansion of the targeted education supports. It is designed to provide enhanced, evidence-based support to 121 schools with the very highest concentration of children and young people experiencing persistent and intergenerational disadvantage. Approximately 30,000 children and young people nationally will benefit from inclusion in the scheme. The Deputies raised issues in relation to schools in disadvantaged areas of Drogheda not being included in the scheme. At the outset, I acknowledge the very real challenges faced by the school communities in Drogheda, as well as the commitment of the school leadership, teachers and the entire school community who work continuously to support children and families facing complex and entrenched difficulties. It is important to stress that a school not being included in DEIS does not imply that disadvantage does not exist within that school's community. The DEIS plus schools were identified using a rules-based model built on nationally available pupil-level administrative data. This model draws on a range of indicators associated with persistent and intergenerational disadvantage, including small-area disadvantage, lone parents, unemployment, Traveller or Roma identity and children living in State-funded emergency accommodation. These indicators are applied consistently across all schools using enrolment data from the past three years. In order to be included under the model, schools must demonstrate both a level of disadvantage significantly higher than the national average and a high concentration of pupils from very or extremely disadvantaged areas. Schools can experience significant levels of challenge and need but still fall outside the thresholds required for inclusion in this very targeted scheme. A school-led application or self-reporting process would introduce inconsistencies and inequality, which is why a data-driven and national comparative approach is essential. The OECD review of the DEIS identification model highlighted the strengths of this approach, noting that it is multidimensional, general data protection regulation compliant and places no administrative burden on the schools. The Department also recognises that some schools operate in particularly difficult local environments, where community pressures can impact well-being, engagement and learning. While such pressures are often well understood locally, they are not always captured in the datasets that can be fairly and consistently applied across the entire school system. A rules-based national model must consider all schools on the same basis; it cannot substitute locally known challenges for data that are not available or comparable nationwide. When applied to schools in Drogheda, the model reflected disadvantage but not at the level of concentration required for inclusion in DEIS plus. However, DEIS schools in Drogheda continue to receive significant supports. DEIS grant allocations have been recalculated under the new model, with a number of schools receiving increased funding, and all continue to have access to a full home school community liaison co-ordinators. Additionally, three schools in Drogheda benefit from further staffing supports under the DEIS urban band 1 enhanced capitation rate, as recommended by the Geiran report, providing additional teaching capacity and stability. This measure has been recently extended and all schools have been notified. The appeals process for schools not included in DEIS plus is now open, with full details available on the Department of education's website.

I would like to have more time available to discuss this, because I am confounded by that response. Effectively, what the Minister of State is saying is that we have disadvantage but that it is not at the level of concentration required for inclusion in DEIS plus. That is quite extraordinary in light of the data we have available. I will give the Minister of State an example. At least three of the schools serve particular areas. I am going to read out the levels of disadvantage in the context of the HP deprivation index in 2022. One area on the north side had a HP deprivation index of minus 33. There was 27% unemployment among males there and 47% of people in the area were lone parents. On the south side, one area stood at minus 32 on the deprivation index. It had an unemployment rate of 27% and 25% of those in the area were lone parents. All the schools in that area are accommodating children who are in international protection accommodation services, IPAS, centres, many of them coming from the largest IPAS centre in the country, namely the Mosney centre. It is meeting all the thresholds laid down by the new DEIS identification model and the HP model. This is extraordinary. It needs to be reviewed in a meaningful way.

The Minister of State is paying lip service to the dedication of the staff carrying the can for inadequate Government investment in areas ravaged on the basis of the criteria he listed, namely lone parenthood, unemployment and children living in State-funded emergency accommodation and international protection accommodation. We have Mosney seven minutes down the road and we have the D Hotel, the only large hotel in the town centre of Drogheda, which was ripped away by Government. It does not meet the Minister of State's criteria. It is an absolute insult to the schools and to the teachers who are carrying the can for this. Worse still, it is an insult to the children who need these State supports. I will tell the Minister of State another thing: the silence in the south of Louth and Drogheda by Government representatives is absolutely astounding. I think that Government backbenchers will agree that this is the wrong decision and that it needs to be reversed.

In the first instance, the appeal process is there. I am sure the school communities are engaging to ensure that appeals are submitted. Going back to the challenges in relation to this matter, we have often seen that the criteria being used are very robust. The data collection is also very robust. The challenge here is that the Deputies have given me figures in relation to percentages of unemployment and lone parents and information in respect of IPAS centres. It is hugely important that we have a robust system that goes through all the schools and that the resources that are put in for DEIS plus, or even DEIS in the first instance, are robust enough that we can understand it and stand over it. What the Deputies have outlined is serious, particularly as they see flaws in the system. It is hugely important that this is demonstrated in any appeal that is put forward by the school communities in relation to DEIS plus. These are robust mechanisms that have been considered in the context of international best practice. To be fair, the review in that regard was very complimentary regarding the system. We are trying to make sure that the scarce resources available to the State are targeted at and reaching the most vulnerable. What the Deputies have outlined would certainly give me food for thought in the context of the percentages they mentioned in a number of instances, such as the figures relating to lone parents and unemployment. I appeal to them to make sure that the school communities include that information in their appeals. I take this opportunity to reassure them that the system is robust enough to ensure that those data will be taken into consideration into the future. The wider points the Deputies made in relation to Drogheda and the large urban centre are not lost on me.