I see that the Minister for education is not here. I believe she has an engagement this morning. It is very rare for me to get the opportunity to raise a Topical Issue so it is very difficult to not have the Minister here. I am not questioning the Minister of State's ability to answer the question. I am sure he is very well prepared. However, it is very difficult when you go to the bother and do a lot of research into an area only for the Minister not to be here. I find that a little bit frustrating. Now that I have given out, I thank the Minister of State very much for being here to answer my question, which is about the plans for the inclusion of schools in the DEIS plus scheme. I am happy that the Department has answered calls for DEIS plus, which a number of school communities, particularly around this city but also throughout the country, have asked for. It addresses the fact that the original DEIS model has not been the panacea people thought it would be in addressing educational disadvantage. While it does have positives, there have been gaps in services and it has not achieved what it set out to in the depth that it was thought it would. It is really important that the new strategy being implemented is rigorous and methodical and that it is evaluated and monitored appropriately. The way in which it is evaluated must be much better than those for the previous schemes so that we can learn what is and is not working early on. I am a little bit worried that this strategy will only tickle the wicked problem of educational disadvantage and that it will not actually be able to address it fully. From the answers I have received in writing about this and from watching other debates that happened in November 2025, I see that schools will not be required to apply. Schools were asked to apply the very first time DEIS was implemented. There were advantages to that because schools were able to say exactly what the issues were. The second time DEIS was looked at, schools did not have to apply because metrics were put in place. There were difficulties with that because you did not get the on-the-ground knowledge. You can get data from the census, the HP deprivation index and things like that but unless you know what is going on in schools, you do not know what is going on in schools. That is one of the difficulties. The reply to my question in November stated: The DEIS Plus scheme will provide additional support to schools with the highest levels of need, in line with the Government’s commitment. I keep saying the word "schools" for a reason. We are trying to support children and young people. It is not about schools. Schools are the conduit but we need to use the terms "children" and "young people", which the reply does go on to do. The reply continued: It will target a cohort of schools with high concentrations of children and young people experiencing intergenerational disadvantage where there is a significant gap in outcomes and there are barriers to those children and young people achieving their potential. Intergenerational disadvantage needs to be taken together with intergenerational trauma. The reality on the ground in schools is that young people are not succeeding to the best of their ability because of intergenerational trauma and disadvantage. You cannot separate them out. You also cannot find that data on the HP deprivation index. That is one way of looking at it but you have to be able to see what is going on in a family. If they are living in private rented accommodation, that is not taken into consideration. If you are living in a fancy housing estate but are on the housing assistant payment, HAP, because you happened to get a landlord who would rent there, that is not counted. That is a big disadvantage when trying to identify those families who need additional support. DEIS needs to follow the child and not only the school.

Sentiment score: 0.02

I am glad to see that we are on the same page with regard to following the child. To clarify, I do think DEIS has been extremely positive. However, it is not as positive as people thought it was going to be. When DEIS was brought in, people thought that schools would automatically become able to answer all the questions over time. They cannot because, as the Minister of State has rightly said, his Department is also responsible for intergenerational disadvantage. We cannot just pigeonhole this in the Department of Education and Youth. It has to be seen throughout Departments because, to deal with intergenerational disadvantage, we need to deal with intergenerational trauma. That is a very large thing. We in this country are only starting to understand how much it affects young people. I am glad that the Minister of State mentioned the school completion programme. As I have said several times in here, I was a school completion co-ordinator for 18 years before I became a TD. I am very proud of that role. I would not like to see it eroded. I look forward to the Department finalising the employment and governance structure of the school completion programme, but that is for a different day. DEIS plus should not only be about the funding it will bring. The funding is vitally important, but it is about the services that are provided to children. The pupil-teacher ratio being reduced in DEIS schools, particularly in DEIS plus schools, is really important, as are multidisciplinary teams, which are able to go in to address specifically, not generally, the needs of children and young people and see where they are at. I do not want to see professionals coming in to tell teachers how to do it. Teachers are teachers; they are not therapists. We need to make sure that professional therapists are in there who can support those children at the worst times of their lives, when they are dealing with things going on for them. I will also say, and this is not talked about quite a lot, that I want to see an opportunity for the arts, as part of social inclusion, to be brought back into schools. This was removed a number of years ago, but it is so important. I know it is something that is being worked on by Professor Paul Downes and people in DCU. Professor Downes is part of that working strategy.

Sentiment score: 0.08