2026-04-15

I am raising the issue of DEIS plus, which is a new scheme announced to give enhanced supports to the most disadvantaged schools in the country. Obviously, I am all in favour of enhanced supports for schools, but there are a number of problems. I bring to the attention of the Minister of State the Corduff area of Dublin 15. I have been contacted by the principals of St. Patrick's Senior National School and St. Patrick’s Junior National School in the area. They will be in the DEIS band 1 scheme but have been excluded from the DEIS plus scheme. One of the principals, Mary O’Riordan, spoke to The Irish Times about this. For example, she said the area has been beset by a vicious feud involving local rival gangs in recent years. There was absolute devastation at the school when they learned they were not included in the new scheme. She has worked in the area for 26 years. The level of disadvantage is massive, with issues such as addiction, poverty and crime. While I do not know whether crime is a criterion for the scheme, I do know that trauma is a criterion. It is mentioned that up to 50% of children in the schools under the DEIS plus scheme will have experienced trauma. One of the issues in Corduff, which is frequently in the news for all the wrong reasons, is that gangs have historically been located there. The principals of the schools in question say that a lot of parents are doing a brilliant job but that others are struggling. The schools have put additional supports in place. For example, both schools are currently paying a trained counsellor and play therapist to work at each school one day per week, at a cost of €350 per day. They used to pay for four days but they can no longer afford to maintain that level of support. Both schools need a counselling service five days per week. Children often come to school and it is noticed straight away that something has happened to them. The schools want to open nurture rooms but they need to pay staff members to staff such rooms. That is something for which the DEIS plus scheme would provide. It would provide a well-being co-ordinator and extra teaching support. In general, the way this scheme has been implemented is a bit strange. While I am all in favour of the scheme, it seems that a super league is being created whereby schools will nearly have to compete to get on it. As the Minister of States knows, or maybe he does not, Dublin 15 is one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. One in four people there is under 15 years of age. Only one school in Dublin 15 has got onto the DEIS plus scheme. It does not make any sense given the population and social profile of the area. Not one of the 25 secondary schools got on the list, despite having massive diversity. Corduff, Tyrrelstown and Mulhuddart in particular are the fastest-growing areas in the whole of Fingal. Other schools in Blakestown and Mountview, which are currently in the scheme, have also not been included. That seems a bit bizarre. These schools are dealing with the huge and complex social issues of crime and drug addiction that have historically been experienced in the area. In the statistics and data, Corduff is described as very disadvantaged. In the Pobal HP deprivation indices, there is colour coding on maps for the area. Corduff is marked by the strongest orange colour. In fact, it is even more deprived than some other areas that have been included in the scheme.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Naughton. The Deputy’s raised issues relating to a vicious feud and rival gangs, as well as issues around addiction, poverty and trauma. The latter have caused serious problems in Corduff and many other areas. I am familiar with Dublin 15. Addressing educational disadvantage and ensuring that every child and young person can reach their full potential is a key priority for the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy Naughton, and the Government. The DEIS plus scheme, as the Deputy is aware, will commence this year as part of the DEIS strategy to 2035. It represents the most significant expansion of targeted educational supports since the establishment of the DEIS programme. It is designed to provide enhanced, evidence-based support to a cohort of 121 schools with the very highest concentrations of children and young people experiencing persistent and intergenerational disadvantage, which the Deputy outlined. This forms part of a wider full-year investment of €48 million, with approximately 30,000 children and young people nationally benefiting from inclusion in the scheme. The Deputy raised the question about St Patrick’s Junior National School and St Patrick’s Senior National School in Corduff not being included in the targeted DEIS plus scheme. I acknowledge, as the Deputy did, the exceptional commitment of the school leadership and staff, who work day in and day out to support children and families facing significant and huge challenges. Their work is critical. It is important to stress that a school not identified through the DEIS plus model does not in any way imply that the Department of Education and Youth is saying that disadvantage does not exist within that school community. DEIS plus schools were identified using a refined, rules-based model built on nationally available student-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. The Deputy said that she felt trauma should be included as an indicator as well. These indicators are applied consistently across all schools using enrolment data from the past three years. Schools can and do show significant levels of disadvantage while still not falling below the statistical threshold required for inclusion in the scheme. A school-led application or self-reporting model would inevitably introduce inconsistency, inequality and inequity, which is why a transparent, 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. The Department also recognises that some schools are operating in the context of particularly complex local pressures within their wider communities. While these challenges are often well understood locally, they are not always captured in data sets that can be fairly and consistently applied across the entire school system. A rules-based national model must rank all schools on the same basis. It cannot substitute locally held knowledge for data that are not available or comparable nationwide. St Patrick’s junior and senior national schools are recognised as serving very disadvantaged school communities. While they fall outside the threshold for inclusion in the DEIS plus scheme, they continue to benefit from enhanced supports through the DEIS programme. Under the new DEIS strategy, both schools will receive increased DEIS grant funding and enhanced home school community liaison provision, HSCL, with each school now having access to their own full-time HSCL co-ordinator from the start of the 2026-27 school year. Schools will have the opportunity to appeal the decision not to include them in the DEIS plus scheme. An appeals window will open in the coming weeks.

Obviously, the schools should appeal the decision. Hopefully, they will be brought up to the level of supports needed. There has been a huge problem in this regard. There has been a 500% increase in the number of schools contacting the financial support services unit of the Department because of the rising cost of living. It affects every school. In areas of severe disadvantage, parents do not have the same resources that more middle-class areas have. Are the schools supposed to drop the nurturing and well-being support they are providing because they cannot afford it any longer? I understand the Minister of State is saying they will still get supports from the DEIS scheme. There is one other matter I wish to follow up. The Minister of State mentioned that there is new enhanced data and a way of analysing same. I am all for a scientific approach but the Minister of State said: While these challenges are often well understood locally, they are not always captured in data sets that can be fairly and consistently applied across the entire school system. A rules-based national model must rank all schools on the same basis. It cannot substitute locally held knowledge for data that are not available ... Where do locally held factors that are specific to an area come into it? We hear about the Westies and about gangland crime over the years in Corduff. It has those historical local problems, and that should be considered. On the same day that the schools got the news they would not be included in DEIS plus, five members of a local organised crime group were sentenced to jail over an attack which the judge involved said bypassed any notion of humanity and which involved beating, burning, stabbing and branding their victim with the word "rat". Children in these schools are being groomed into crime. They are not able to learn because they come into school having suffered trauma. Those factors have to be taken into account somewhere in the system.

The DEIS plus scheme has a clear specific purpose, which is to target a relatively small number of schools with the very highest concentrations of children and young people who are experiencing persistent and intergenerational disadvantage. As the Deputy knows, it uses an evidence-based identification model. Applying this model fairly means that not every school serving a disadvantaged community can be included at this time. We have all been in this situation over the years. I would have questioned why some schools were not included even in the DEIS programme. I found that difficult to understand, but the new system seems to be very transparent and open. As the Deputy rightly stated, this does not diminish the very real challenges faced by St. Patrick's junior and senior national schools. Both schools serve disadvantaged school communities and continue to benefit from the enhanced support from the DEIS programme. This reflects the need of the supports needed in those communities. Through the DEIS strategy to 2035, the Department of Education and Youth remains committed to continue reviewing how educational disadvantage is identified and addressed in order to ensure that supports are targeted in a fair, consistent and evidence-based way, which is what we all want. The appeals window will open in the coming weeks and schools will be given the opportunity to update their school enrolment data and whatever other data is there. I encourage the schools to do that as quickly as possible. I want to show the Deputy that supporting children and young people in Corduff to enable them to reach their full potential through education remains an ongoing commitment, not just on the part of the Government but also on that of their parents, teachers and community. I thank her again for raising this very important issue.