The School Completion Programme(SCP) is a key support under my departments Delivering Equality of Opportunity in School programme (DEIS). SCP is an integral part of the DEIS plan and will continue to play a critical role in supporting children of school going age to stay in school for longer and to tackle rising rates of absenteeism.
Access to SCP is available to DEIS Post Primary, DEIS Urban Band 1 primary and DEIS Urban Band 2 primary schools.
The school referred to by the Deputy is a Rural DEIS primary school.
Rural DEIS primary schools do not currently have access to the SCP, however the DEIS programme and associated allocation model does provide additional resources to primary schools classified as DEIS rural schools, albeit at a lower level. Amongst other supports, the school in question benefits from additional funding in the form of a DEIS grant and can use this funding to mitigate educational disadvantage in line with the school’s DEIS planning process.
The DEIS programme is targeted at schools with the highest levels of concentrated disadvantage as identified through the refined DEIS identification model. Schools are not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme, and the model is applied fairly and equally to all schools. A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie.
My department is committed to narrowing the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introducing innovative solutions to address disadvantage. A new DEIS Strategy will be published in early 2026. The new DEIS Strategy will focus on improving the opportunities and achievement levels of children at risk of educational disadvantage, developing more innovative approaches to tackling educational disadvantage, and working towards a more flexible system of supports to ensure that a school can receive the right support at the right time.
The DEIS Plus scheme will provide additional support to schools with the highest levels of need, in line with the Government’s commitment. 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.
The process to identify schools for inclusion in DEIS Plus will be evidence-informed, using available data. The details of the DEIS Plus scheme are currently being finalised within an overall programme of work to tackle educational disadvantage and will be outlined in the new DEIS Strategy, which my department intends to publish in early 2026. Any future expansion of the DEIS programme and inclusion in the DEIS Plus scheme will be considered with the context of the new DEIS Strategy and the availability of resources.
It is my intention that this work will strengthen the greater integration of the supports provided to address educational disadvantage and will support those children and young people most at risk of early school leaving.
