Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 July 2026
234. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will provide an update on the City Connects Programme; if she plans to expand the scheme on a wider pilot basis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54245/26]
View answerAddressing educational disadvantage and ensuring that every child and young person can reach their full potential is a key priority for me as Minister for Education and Youth and for the Government. The new DEIS Plus scheme, which will commence this year, launched as part of the DEIS Strategy to 2035, represents the most significant expansion of targeted supports since the establishment of DEIS. DEIS Plus is designed to provide enhanced, evidence-based supports to a cohort of 121 schools with the highest concentrations of children and young people at risk of educational disadvantage, identified through a refined data-based model that draws on a range of indicators associated with persistent and intergenerational disadvantage.
This approach ensures that additional resources are directed where they can have the greatest impact, and forms a core element of the wider €48 million full-year investment across both the DEIS Strategy and the DEIS Plus scheme. Approximately 30,000 children and young people attending DEIS Plus schools will benefit from these targeted supports.
Schools in the DEIS Plus scheme will receive strengthened, research-informed supports across wellbeing, attendance, engagement, guidance, leadership capacity, community partnerships and access to services, including the introduction of a new positive mental health and wellbeing initiative to support a whole-school approach to student wellbeing.
With regard to City Connects, the City Connects pilot was set up in 2020 in Ireland and is led by my department and Tusla Education Support Service, in conjunction with the National Centre for City Connects Ireland (NCCCI) and Boston College.
City Connects offers a systematic way for schools to connect every pupil to the right supports at the right time by knitting together both community-based and in-school resources. At the core of the City Connects practice is the coordinator, who meets with each class teacher and others in the school to discuss the interests and also the strengths and needs of each child in the areas of academics, social/emotional/behavioural growth, health, and family. In this process, the coordinator works closely with school principals, home school community liaison coordinators, School Completion Programme coordinators, and families. Together, they craft an individual plan of services and enrichments for each child. The coorindators also work with the Summer Programme managers in the school to offer some streamlined activities which proved really useful, particularly for schools new to the Summer Programme.
The coordinator cultivates and maintains ties with community partners such as youth services, health providers, sports teams, theatres, and arts programmes, serving as a point of contact for the school and enabling the right connections between pupils and opportunities. The MyConnects software system allows coordinators to catalogue community service providers, to document, track, and report on service referrals, and to follow up on service delivery.
City Connects is currently running in DEIS schools in the North East Inner City (NEIC) serving approximately 2,500 children each year.
The implementation of the DEIS Plus scheme, including the expansion of City Connects, is being progressed by my officials. Any relevant decisions will be made in due course.
