Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 October 2025
72. Deputy John Lahart asked the Minister for Education and Youth her plans to embed multidisciplinary teams including counsellors, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, and psychologists within DEIS Plus schools. [57686/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 2025 Programme for Government commits to the commencement of a national therapy service in education. The Education Therapy Service (ETS), as referenced in the recently announced Education Plan, arose from this commitment. The development and delivery of this service will be informed by detailed engagement with our colleagues in the HSE and stakeholders and will build on the National Council for Special Educations’ (NCSE) work previously completed through the Educational Therapy Support Service (ETSS) and the School Inclusion Model (SIM). Officials in my Department have begun engagement with relevant Departments and agencies on the design, timelines, alignment, integrated working and costings involved to deliver this ambitious programme of work.
It is anticipated this service will commence in some special schools at a later stage in the 2025/26 school year. Further roll out of the service will occur on a phased basis with a wider roll-out in special schools, commencing in the 2026/27 school year. This service will be expanded overtime, to include special and mainstream classes. Initially the service will include the disciplines of Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy, over time further disciplines such as physiotherapy may be included.
In addition to the ETS, the NCSE have been developing an education -based therapy support service known as the ETSS. This service currently provides two strands of support to schools, Regional Therapy and Sustained In-School Therapy to both mainstream and special schools. Sustained in-school support (SIT) is provided to schools for a defined period of 18-24 months in line with the School Inclusion Model. 22 schools in the Eastern region are currently availing of this service and 28 schools in the Western region will receive support under SIT from September 25. Regional therapy support provides Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) with follow on/implementation support by NCSE therapists. The focus of this support is to build the capacity of schools and to embed the learning from TPL into their teaching practice, through In-school coaching and co-facilitation of interventions, strategies and resources, with a focus on whole school (Tier 1) and targeted/school support levels (Tier 2) of a multi-tiered system of support. Regional Therapy seminars will be available nationally for the 2025/2026 school year.
The ETS will work alongside existing services such as CDNT’s and NEPS to ensure all children and young people have the opportunity to access supports in the right place at the right time, supporting the realisation of their full potential and engagement in their education.
The Minister for Education and Youth is determined to close the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introduce more innovative solutions to tackle disadvantage. The new DEIS plan will be published this year and will include a DEIS plus scheme.
Currently, the DEIS programme supports almost 1,200 primary and post-primary schools reaching approximately 260,000 students, with an annual investment of over €180 million. Budget 2026 allocates an additional €16 million in 2026, rising to €48 million in 2027 to introduce the DEIS plus scheme and support the implementation of the new DEIS plan.
The DEIS plus scheme will provide additional supports to schools with the highest level of need, in line with Government’s commitment. It will provide targeted support to a small group of schools with the highest concentration of students experiencing intergenerational disadvantage. The DEIS plus scheme is currently being developed in collaboration with principals, Home School Community Liaison coordinators, School Completion Programme workers, and children and young people from schools experiencing the highest levels of disadvantage in order to form a student-centred design approach for the DEIS plus scheme.
Details of the DEIS plus scheme and the allocation of funding for the DEIS plus scheme will be determined as part of the new DEIS plan which will be announced at the end of the year.
