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.

Sentiment score: -0.02

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.

Sentiment score: 0.21