I ask the Minister to provide an update on the current status of the review of the DEIS identification model.

As the Deputy is aware, the single biggest expansion of the DEIS programme was announced by me recently, with an investment of €17 million, increasing to €32 million next year. We are very conscious of the benefit of the DEIS programme. All analysis and studies on the programme show that it makes a considerable impact in our schools. We have grown it to such an extent that one in four of our students benefits from the DEIS programme.

In terms of the review process, more than 300 schools were announced as benefiting from the DEIS programme. Schools that were not successful on this occasion were given the opportunity to appeal the findings of the programme. The schools have been notified of their status on foot of that. The entire funding allocation for the programme for 2023 will be in the region of €180 million. Consequently, because of the recent enhancement, schools with the highest levels of concentrated educational disadvantage have now been identified for inclusion in the programme through the new refined DEIS identification model which is an objective, statistics-based model. Schools were not required to apply for inclusion in the DEIS programme and the model has been applied fairly and equally to all schools. The model uses information from the school’s individual enrolment database and 2016 national census data as represented by the Pobal HP deprivation index. It also takes into consideration the significant educational disadvantage experienced by Traveller and Roma learners and by students residing in direct provision or emergency homeless accommodation. A detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie.

I thank the Minister for her response. I welcome the recent major expansion of the DEIS programme, which demonstrates the Minister's commitment, and that of the Department, to inclusive education and supporting students facing disadvantage. However, I am concerned about the identification model, which the Minister has stated is objective and statistics-based. I regularly meet with many principals and boards of management of schools in the DEIS programme in my own constituency, including in my own town of Castlebar. Despite the area of deprivation, St. Gerald's DLS College in Castlebar is in close proximity to Davitt College, a school with similar enrolment data and risk of educational disadvantage, yet one school is included in the programme and the other is not. There was a similar issue with St. Patrick's Boys' National School, which has now amalgamated with another school. While I welcome the DEIS appeals process, will there be further expansion of the programme in the coming months? I ask the Minister to provide an update on that.

I appreciate the point the Deputy has made. As I have outlined already, there is a detailed paper on the refined DEIS model, which is available on gov.ie . At its core, it is about identifying concentrated levels of disadvantage. That is the nub of it. I accept that schools may be in close proximity to one another, but they do not necessarily have the same cohort of students. Notwithstanding that, I think it is important to acknowledge that the expansion of the DEIS programme to new schools is just one phase of the work that we seek to do. I absolutely accept that there are students who are attending schools that are not DEIS schools and would benefit from the DEIS supports. Therefore, we are looking at a whole range of supports being provided to schools. We have seen that in the additional supports that we are providing via budget 2023.

I welcome the expansion of the programme. Within County Mayo, an additional 15 schools were included in the expansion announced in March of this year, which was most welcome. However, I wish to highlight the inconsistency of there being no DEIS schools in west or south Mayo. All the schools allocated DEIS status are in north or east Mayo. Certainly, while I understand that the model is a statistics-based one, there are issues around trying to get clarifications for principals and boards of management who are in desperate need. It may be the case that in one family, one child attends one school and siblings attend another school, resulting in a huge disparity in terms of the levels of teaching, learning and supports being provided. It is important that we get some consistency around it.

I appreciate the Deputy's point that one school in an area may be awarded DEIS status and another may not. However, because it is about concentrated disadvantage, that will be the case unless the other school absolutely mirrors the school that is awarded DEIS status in terms of the entire student population. Again, I reiterate that a detailed paper on the refined DEIS identification model is available on gov.ie. I also recognise that there is a need to target resources at those schools that need them most. The next phase of work, which I am undertaking now, will explore the allocation of resources to all schools to tackle educational disadvantage. This will involve consultation with all relevant stakeholders. We will seek to build on many of the positive initiatives from budget 2023, including the €50 million investment providing free books to primary schools, the reduction in class sizes for all schools and all the other initiatives that have been made available in the budget.