2026-02-26

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as a bheith anseo inniu. An rud atá mé ag plé inniu ná an gá stádas DEIS a bhronnadh ar Ghaelscoil Lir i dTeach an Sagard atá i mo dháilcheantar féin. An fáth atá mé ag cur na ceiste seo faoi bhráid na Dála ná go bhfuil leibhéal suntasach tithíochta socheacnamaíocha agus éagsúlachta ag baint leis an scoil. Tá an scoil féin ag freastal ar theaghlaigh atá ag brath ar íocaíochtaí leasadh shóisialaigh de réir mar atá le feiceáil ó innéacs pobal. Tá an-chuid de na daltaí ó chúlraí imirce agus ilteangacha agus tá cuid mhór acu ag cur fúthu san ionad IPAS in aice na scoile. Tá go leor riachtanaisí breise oideachais le sonrú sa scoil freisin. Mar Ghaelscoil, tá an Ghaelscoil féin ag déanamh freastal ar go leor teaghlaigh nach bhfuil an Ghaeilge mar theanga sa bhaile acu, agus fiú amháin nach bhfuil Béarla ann. Is léir go bhfuil páistí sa scoil seo a bhfuil ag labhairt as Gaeilge nach bhfuil cumas acu sa Bhéarla, rud atá an-spéisiúil agus iontach ann féin, ach tá riachtanais ag an scoil a bhfuil freastal ag teastáil orthu. Níl rochtain ag an scoil ar a leithéid de chlár críochnaithe scoile, níl nasc idir an scoil agus an baile, agus níl fáil aige ach oiread ar a leithéid de dheontas le cúntóir a fhostú sa scoil. The Topical Issue I raise today relates to Gaelscoil Lir, which is a growing school in my constituency based in Saggart-Citywest. To be clear, I am a member of its board of management. The reason I raise for Gaelscoil Lir to be considered for DEIS status is the school was established in the 2021-22 school year. It missed out on the immediate adjudication and assessment of a school for inclusion in the DEIS programme. If we look at the overall picture of the school itself, it is one that has the needs add profile to justify the bestowing of DEIS status on it. There are families from low-income backgrounds whose children attend the school. Social welfare is the only source of income for a number of those families, there is a high prevalence of special educational needs in the school and there are two special classes in a student body of under 100 students. In and of itself, this is quite remarkable and shows the school staff’s commitment to providing high level special education. A number of the students attending are from backgrounds where Ireland is not their country of birth. Many of them are also living in the IPAS centre immediately adjacent to the school. One of the unique and very special things about Gaelscoil Lir is it has a number of students who speak Irish who cannot speak English. They have their native language from home or their own country and they now have proficiency in our native tongue, which is a beautiful thing to learn. The other side of that, however, is this is a school that has all of these needs but does not have access to things like the home school liaison programme or the school completion programme and is not able to employ a caretaker because of the size of its ancillary grant. Were we to have a serious debate about the need to encourage and ensure Irish-medium education; something I am very passionate about, we would also need to make sure Irish-medium education is available to all people of all backgrounds. A support we in Fianna Fáil are rightly proud of is the expansion of the DEIS programme and giving children the educational opportunities they need. I would seriously consider the need to review Gaelscoil Lir’s status and make allowance for the fact that given its student population, with many students residing in the IPAS centre, and given the significant areas of deprivation adjacent to it, there is an argument to consider DEIS status for Gaelscoil Lir. I wholeheartedly urge that as a consideration today.

I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this important issue. Addressing educational disadvantage is a key priority for the Government, for me and, obviously, for the Minister for Education and Youth. The DEIS programme is a key policy initiative for addressing concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. DEIS supplements universal supports by targeting additional resources to schools where disadvantage is most concentrated, helping to promote equity and meet the needs of children and young people. Currently, the DEIS programme supports almost 1,200 primary and post-primary schools and reaches approximately 260,000 students with an annual investment of more than €180 million. Budget 2026 allocated an additional €16.5 million in 2026, rising to €48 million in 2027, to support the implementation of a new DEIS strategy and introduce the DEIS plus scheme, which will commence this year. Schools which were included in the expansion of the programme in 2022 were those with the highest levels of concentration of children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage, as identified through the refined DEIS identification model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme. The model was applied fairly and equally to all schools, including those in the DEIS programme already, to ensure they were in the band which best addressed their level of disadvantage. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, is committed to addressing educational disadvantage in all schools to ensure all children can reach their potential. To this end, a new ten-year DEIS strategy to 2035 will be published in the coming weeks. The new strategy will introduce innovative solutions to address educational disadvantage and continue to address the gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools. Over its lifetime, the new DEIS strategy will focus on improving the opportunities and achievement levels of children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage, developing more innovative approaches to tackling educational disadvantage, and working towards a more flexible system of supports to ensure that a school can receive the right support at the right time. Any future changes to the identification model and overall allocation of resources will be considered within the context of the new ten-year DEIS strategy.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit as an freagra sin. I thank the Minister of State for taking this Topical Issue. I am a little disappointed the response did not refer to Gaelscoil Lir and that is something I will raise with the Department, given that was the particular schooled I raised in this instance. I draw attention to the fact that Gaelscoil Lir is quite unique in where it is located. It is located beside an IPAS centre and has a diversity of student backgrounds that have higher levels of special educational needs. It requires access to a home school liaison. It has scope to be one of the fastest growing schools in the Saggart-Citywest area and crucially, and this is something I have a particular interest in, it is also securing the language rights of families who want to send their children to an Irish-medium school. That is something we have to take seriously. I welcome the fact that DEIS strategy is being reviewed at the moment and will identify unique pockets of disadvantage but I also heartily encourage the Department and the Minister to seriously consider how the socioeconomic gaps that exist in areas around the country are also reflected for schools with Irish-medium education as well. Sometimes there is an assumption that because a Gaelscoil is a Gaelscoil, it does not need access to support, the school completion programme or the home school liaison programme. We have to disabuse ourselves of that notion because that is not true. Tá an-obair ar siúl ag foireann Ghaelscoil Lir. Tá an-dúshlán á shárú aici. An rud atá mise ag iarraidh sa Teach seo inniu ná go mbeidh tacaíocht ar fáil d’fhoireann, do thuismitheoirí agus do phobal scoile Gaelscoil Lir chun go mbeidh siad in ann freastal ar na riachtanais atá acu agus go mbeidh siad in ann freastal ar na daltaí atá ag dul ag an scoil sin. Tá mé ag iarraidh go mbeidh gach aon deis ag gach aon dalta sa scoil sin gach rud gur féidir leo a bhaint amach sa saol sa todhchaí agus go mbeidh an Stát ag tacú leo é sin a dhéanamh.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and giving us the opportunity to discuss it. The Department of Education and Youth is committed to supporting a high quality and inclusive school system that provides an equal opportunity for success for all children. DEIS remains central to that commitment and the forthcoming DEIS strategy will ensure that supports are targeted fairly and reflect the evolving needs of our school communities, informed by stakeholder engagement and a strengthened, needs-based allocation model. As part of the new ten-year strategy, the Department will review the current DEIS framework with a view to refining how disadvantage is measured and how schools are supported. This process will take account of a range of evidence and stakeholder feedback to ensure that schools serving significant levels of need are appropriately recognised in the updated model. The refinement of the DEIS model as part of the new strategy will consider how emerging or evolving patterns of disadvantage can be better addressed and how the system can best respond to schools that face increasing levels of need.