Jen Cummins
Question:155. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Education and Youth the reason schools are not being consulted when DEIS allocation is being reviewed. [13230/26]
View answerWednesday, 18 February 2026
Questions (155)
Written answers
The DEIS programme is a key Government policy aimed at addressing concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. Currently, the DEIS programme supports almost 1,200 primary and post-primary schools, reaching approximately 260,000 students, with an annual investment of over investment of over €180 million. Budget 2026 allocates an additional €16.5 million in 2026, rising to €48 million in 2027, to introduce the DEIS Plus scheme and support the implementation of the new DEIS Strategy.
The OECD’s 2024 Review of Resourcing Schools to Address Educational Disadvantage in Ireland highlighted the role of the DEIS programme in providing an education system that consistently outperforms many other OECD countries but also exhibits relative socio-economic fairness, making it one of the stronger performers globally. The review also highlighted as a positive, the level to which the Department involves stakeholders in policy development and decision making in relation to tackling educational disadvantage.
Throughout 2024 and 2025, the Department carried out consultation workshops, focus groups and other engagements with principals, deputy principals, teachers, the Home School Community Liaison officers, the School Completion Programme team, and education partners and stakeholders, including children and young people. This work has been extremely important in informing policy development in this area.
A DEIS Plus Design Advisory Group was established to inform the development of the DEIS Plus scheme. This group includes principals, Home School Community Liaison and School Completion Programme coordinators who work directly with students experiencing high levels of educational disadvantage. Members of this group have provided information about daily challenges faced by students, such as reliance on school meals and the impact of intergenerational trauma. They have also highlighted "what works" and how we can build on that through DEIS Plus.
The new DEIS Strategy will set out the Department of Education and Youth’s strategic vision, goals, and objectives to tackle educational disadvantage in all schools. The Strategy has a focus on developing more innovative approaches to addressing educational disadvantage and working towards a more flexible system of support to ensure that all schools can receive the right support at the right time. This will involve a more dynamic resource allocation model where levels of resources more accurately follow the levels of need identified by objective data.
Schools that were included in the most recent expansion of the programme in 2022 were those with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model. Data supplied by schools, through enrolment data supplied to the Department by school through the Primary Online Database and the Post-primary Online Database, is central to the application of that model. Further information on the model can be found here: assets.gov.ie/static/documents/the-refined-deis-identification-model.pdf
Any future expansion of the DEIS programme and overall allocation of resources will be determined within the context of the new DEIS Strategy, which will be published in the coming weeks.