2026-04-29

DEIS plus is a crucial step to break the cycle of poverty and educational inequality. Several Limerick city schools have been included, which I really welcome, but, unfortunately, six schools have not been and they serve some of the most deprived communities in the State. Those schools are Our Lady of Lourdes, St. John's Girls' and Infant Boys' School, St. John the Baptist Boys' National School, Presentation Primary School, CBS Primary School and St. Michael's Infant School. These schools all form part of the Oscailt network of DEIS schools in Limerick city consisting of all band 1 primary and post-primary schools in the city. There are 12 schools in the Oscailt network. Six were successful with DEIS plus and six were unsuccessful. Research by the Oscailt network in 2025 highlighted the need for multidisciplinary support across all 12 schools and not just the six selected. I will give the Minister examples of some of the statistics from some of the schools that were excluded. St. John the Baptist Boys' National School is an all-boys band 1 school located in Garryowen. It serves a community with complex needs where the majority of the students require interventions from SETs, local unemployment is at 33% and lone parent rates exceed 42%. Third level education in this community is as low as 14.8%. The school was unsuccessful. Similarly, next door, St. John's Girls' and Infant Boys' School serves 220 pupils and is in the John's A electoral district, which is statistically recognised as one of the most deprived areas in the country. A significant proportion of the students come from migrant backgrounds. Third level attainment is also very low. Our Lady of Lourdes has 162 pupils with an early start preschool and two special classes for autism. Most of the school's pupils come from families experiencing long-term intergenerational poverty, and their community is directly impacted by ongoing gangland feuding in the local area. Presentation, CBS and St. Michael's are on the one campus. Some 30% of their students are homeless, including hidden homeless, 20% are in IPAS accommodation, 10% are from a Traveller background and 40% are in DEIS band 1. The principal of CBS primary had to purchase mattresses himself last year as he found 15 people living in a one-bedroom apartment, a fact not picked up by the POD system. The exclusion of these schools reflects not a lack of need but a failure of the system to respond appropriately to that need. The DEIS plus identification model is too rigid. It does not consider the lack of services in areas of high socio-economic deprivation or the crippling and destructive impact for children, families and communities of the many complex issues in these communities. It relies heavily on self-declared census data, and in many of these communities a high proportion of responses to the census return do not state certain details. For example, in Limerick city centre a large cohort of individuals chose not to disclose their ethnic or cultural identity or level of education, and these are two specific areas looked at in the DEIS plus identification model. This tells us that there is a gap in the data. Further gaps exist due to the self-reporting data collected by schools for the POD and P-POD because if the parents do not provide the information on a child's ethnicity, it is not captured by the identification model. We are falling short because the selection process fails to recognise the lived experience of poverty and disadvantage experienced by the children in these schools. In the appeals documentation the Department states that no additional data can be submitted on the appeals process. Therefore, appeals will be considered only on the DEIS plus identification model. We need to find a way to make sure that schools like this are picked up by the DEIS plus identification model.

I thank the Deputy for his question and for giving me the opportunity to speak to it. Addressing educational disadvantage and ensuring that every child and young person can reach their full potential is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth and for this Government. The DEIS plus scheme, commencing this year as part of the DEIS Strategy to 2035, represents the most significant expansion of targeted educational supports since the establishment of the DEIS programme. It is designed to provide enhanced, evidence-based supports to a cohort of 121 schools with the very highest concentrations of children and young people experiencing persistent and intergenerational disadvantage. This forms part of a full-year investment of €48 million, with approximately 30,000 children and young people nationally benefiting from inclusion in the scheme. The Deputy has raised questions about specific schools in Limerick city which were not identified for inclusion in the DEIS plus scheme, including Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, St. John's Girls' and Infant Boys' School, St. John the Baptist Boys' National School, Presentation Primary School, CBS Primary School and St. Michael's Infant School. I acknowledge the very real challenges faced by school communities in Limerick and recognise the dedication of the principals, teachers and staff who work daily to support children and families experiencing disadvantage. It is important to stress that where a school is not identified for inclusion in DEIS plus this does not in any way imply that disadvantage does not exist within that school community. DEIS plus schools were identified using a refined, rules-based model built on nationally available pupil-level administrative data. The model draws on a range of indicators associated with persistent and intergenerational disadvantage, including small-area deprivation, lone parenthood and unemployment, Traveller and Roma identity, and children living in State-funded emergency accommodation or international protection accommodation. These indicators are applied consistently across all schools using enrolment data from the past three years. For inclusion in DEIS plus, the data on the individual school must demonstrate both a level of disadvantage that is significantly above the national average and a very high concentration of pupils from very or extremely disadvantaged areas. Many schools experience real and sustained challenges but still fall outside the threshold required for inclusion in this highly targeted intervention. A school-led application or self-reporting model would introduce inconsistency and inequity, which is why a data-driven and nationally comparable approach is essential. An independent OECD review of the DEIS identification model in 2024 highlighted the strengths of this approach, noting that it is multidimensional, respects GDPR principles and places no administrative burden on schools. When the DEIS plus identification model was applied to the schools referred to by the Deputy in Limerick city, the data reflected disadvantage but not at the level or concentration required for inclusion in the DEIS plus cohort. In applying the same model nationally, a number of schools across Limerick city and county were identified for inclusion under the scheme based on the same objective criteria. Schools in Limerick that are not included in DEIS plus continue to receive significant supports through the DEIS programme. DEIS grant allocations have been reallocated in line with the DEIS plus model with a number of schools mentioned receiving increased funding. In addition to funding adjustments, the Department has reviewed and strengthened home school community liaison provision across the schools referenced by the Deputy with allocations updated under the revised DEIS model to ensure that meaningful supports are in place for families and communities. There is an appeals process for schools not included in the DEIS plus scheme that has now opened and the relevant schools can access full details on gov.ie.

I thank the Minister for being here today. It is very rare that one gets the actual Minister when one raises a Topical Issue. We have the OSCAILT network in Limerick and 12 schools are identified in that. It is very similar in the north east inner city where we have the North East Inner City initiative that works with ten of the most deprived schools in the inner city and operates on the same principles as OSCAILT. My understanding is that those schools were all identified and included in DEIS plus. I have a couple of follow-on questions. Will the Minister or the Department flag to principals in advance of next year the importance of updating their primary online database, POD, and post-primary online database, P-POD, before the DEIS plus assessment? Principals have a highly intensive work load and in many cases the POD may not have been updated in the fullest sense. Will the Department carry out a review on the roll-out of DEIS plus to look meaningfully at some of the issues I have raised around the rigidity of the application process? There is a school on the left hand side of the road in Limerick that has been included and meets the criteria as set out by the system but there is a school on the right hand side of the road that does not when it essentially serves the same population and has the same issues. One school has now been given a leg up while the other has, unfortunately, been given a kick back.

The model nationally did not overlook Limerick. A number of schools across Limerick city and county have been identified for inclusion in DEIS plus based on the same objective criteria. With regard to the appeals process, schools have until 25 May to submit an appeal to the Department for review and they also have the opportunity to update their enrolment data for the years 2023 to 2424, 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 on the Department's POD and P-POD where they identify that the information already provided is not an accurate reflection of their school enrolment for those years. Schools may also request that the application of the model to their existing data be reviewed. That review process will be overseen by an independent appeals board, the members of which are not part of the initial design and implementation of the DEIS plus identification model. When all of the appeals have been processed, the schools will be informed in writing. The data is as good as that on the P-POD and POD but as part of the model, we are looking at unemployment levels and Traveller and Roma identity within these areas. It is based on the Pobal index as well. There will be as periodic reviews of this. My Department is working with the CSO and the ESRI around refining the data. As demographics and data change over the years, this will need to be reviewed as well. Schools will be reassessed periodically as the data sources and techniques are updated and advanced and as demographics change. The identification of schools for inclusion in DEIS plus does consider the presence of that persistent disadvantage but I would advise those schools to appeal as well.