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.

Sentiment score: -0.06

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.

Sentiment score: 0.02