Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
512. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Education and Youth the key measures taken to tackle educational disadvantage during 2025; her priorities for same in 2026; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [72470/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt is a goal of this Government to reduce educational disadvantage and promote equity across Irish schools, focusing particularly on vulnerable groups including children from lower socio-economic backgrounds, children living in homelessness, Travellers, and Roma and migrant communities.
DEIS Programme
The DEIS programme is a key policy initiative of Government to address concentrated educational disadvantage at school level. The Department of Education and Youth provides a wide range of supports to all schools, DEIS and non-DEIS, to support the inclusion of all students and address barriers to students achieving their potential. In addition to this, over €180 million of additional staffing, funding and other resources are allocated annually, by the Department of Education and Youth, to almost 1,200 schools and 260,000 children and young people in the DEIS programme.
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 Strategy. This the single biggest full year investment in tackling educational disadvantage since the DEIS programme was established. The new DEIS Strategy to be published in early 2026 will set out the Department of Education and Youth’s strategic direction for 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.
School Completion Programme
The School Completion Programme is delivered under the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme and provides support to over 800 schools, arranged in clusters, referred to as SCP Projects. SCP is an integral part of the three-strand integrated service of the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) alongside the statutory Education Welfare Service (EWS) and the Home School Community Liaison Scheme (HSCL). These services provide a robust continuum of support and intervention aimed to improve the education experience and outcomes for children and young people at risk of early school leaving and educational disadvantage.
A programme of work to advance the development and implantation of a new employment framework model for workers currently employed in the SCP is underway. This will ensure that the future employment and governance framework for the SCP is robust, sustainable and supports the further development of this programme with TESS.
The purpose is to establish a clear and consistent governance and employment structure that drives consistency and supports a sustainable valued workforce to deliver a cost-effective, quality assured service to some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our schools.
Free Schoolbooks Scheme
Government recognises that the cost of preparing children for school each September can be a cause of financial difficulty and worry for many Irish families. In Budget 2025, the department announced that the schoolbooks scheme would be further extended to include students in Senior Cycle years, including Transition Year, in post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme. In total, €170 million has been allocated to provide free schoolbooks for some 940,000 children and young people enrolled primary, post-primary and special schools in the Free Education Scheme, from the start of the 2025/26 school year. This means, for the first time ever, all children and young people enrolled in primary, special and post-primary schools in the Free Education Scheme will be provided with schoolbooks and core classroom resources.
The funding removes the cost of schoolbooks and core classroom resources for parents/guardians at post-primary level and schoolbooks workbooks and copybooks for parents/guardians at primary level. Schools retain autonomy to choose books that meet curricular requirements. As part of Budget 2026, over €160 million is allocated to continue the schoolbooks schemes for the 2026/27 school year.
School Attendance
In September, my colleague Minister McEntee launched a national multimedia campaign to promote the importance of regular school attendance to students and parents, and Anseo a new evidence-based framework to help schools analyse and respond to attendance data. The multimedia campaign is to encourage parents and of children, who take them out of school for reasons other than illness, to send their children to school every day. The campaign positively communicates the importance and benefits of school attendance and outlined to parents about when a child should and can attend school from a health perspective.
Anseo is a Multi-Dimensional Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MD-MTSS) approach to addressing school attendance problems and it was announced in May 2025. 60 schools have been offered Anseo from the start of the 2025/26 school year. Tusla Education Support Service staff will work with the 60 schools throughout the 2025/26 school year, promoting and supporting the implementation of the model which will enable schools to develop effective and appropriate strategies to respond to the drivers of school absenteeism. An additional 125 schools will be offered Anseo from February 2026 and ‘Anseo’ will be gradually scaled to all schools by September 2028.
Traveller and Roma Education Strategy (TRES)
The Traveller and Roma Education Strategy (TRES) 2024-2030, alongside the Plan for Implementation and Action for 2024-2026, was published in July 2024. This is a six-year strategy which aims to build on ongoing work across the continuum of education, including early learning and childcare, school (primary and post-primary) and further and higher education, to improve outcomes and ensure equity of access, opportunity and outcomes, as well as meaningful participation, for all Travellers and Roma. The strategy contains a number of actions grouped under four themes which include Participation and Experience, Access and Outcomes, Partnership and Delivering Change.
Some of the key actions include increasing the number of young people remaining in school to 6th year and achieving a Leaving Certificate, promoting training on inclusion and diversity through teacher professional learning, addressing racism and discrimination by developing more targeted cultural competence training and teaching Traveller culture and history through the curriculum. The strategy will also promote diversity in the education sector workforce.
Funding was secured to establish 15 Community Link Worker roles to support Traveller and Roma children at risk of educational disadvantage. The Community Link Workers will work across a number of schools in areas where there are high numbers of Traveller and Roma children and young people. Their roles will focus on fostering greater engagement with Traveller and Roma families to facilitate successful communication, promote positive relationships and to support the learning of Traveller and Roma children and young people by linking them to resources within their area. The link workers will provide vital engagement on the ground between schools, families and communities.
A progress report on the actions in the Plan for Implementation and Action was published in July 2025 and the next progress report will be published shortly. A new Plan for Implementation and Action for the years 2026 to 2028 will be published in 2026.
