Educational Disadvantage Dail Éireann — 2026-01-28 ============================================================ Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West It is like being in a meeting in Cork North-West. I am delighted to see how professional an operation it is. I am delighted to be serving with the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach as well. Deputy Heneghan raised the issue in relation to disadvantage in the north-east inner city. I thank the Deputy for his engagement on education matters in the role that I hold at the moment. I urge all Deputies and all public representatives to continue engaging on education because it is hugely important for the future of our country. Education has served Ireland very well over the last decades and beyond and we need to ensure that we are really up to speed with it. The DEIS programme supports 1,200 primary and post-primary schools, reaching approximately 260,000 students with an annual investment of €180 million. The DEIS programme is targeted at schools with the highest level of concentrated disadvantage, with the DEIS urban band 1 schools representing those with the highest concentration of students with the greatest level of need and therefore receiving the most intensive supports. Schools with DEIS urban band 2 supports also face significant need and receive a broad range of supports, including the reduced pupil-teacher ratio, additional school grants, access to the home-school community liaison scheme and the school completion programme, literacy and numeracy initiatives and targeted attendance and retention measures. It is possible for two neighbouring schools to have different profiles in terms of the proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and the relative weighting of disadvantage apportioned in each. The designation of neighbouring schools to different DEIS status does not mean that there is no educational disadvantage present in one school. It means that the concentrated level of educational disadvantage of the two schools is different. The Minister, Deputy Naughton, is committed to narrowing the performance gap between DEIS and non-DEIS schools and introducing an innovative solution to address disadvantage. To this end, the new DEIS strategy to 2035 will be published in the coming months. This will focus on improving the opportunities and achievement levels of children at risk of education disadvantage, developing more innovative approaches to tackling education disadvantage and working towards a more flexible system of support to ensure that a school can receive the right supports at the right time. Any future changes to the overall allocation of resources to schools under the DEIS programme will be considered within the context of the new DEIS strategy. In respect of the education provisions, the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, works with schools to ensure pupils in special classes receive an appropriate education, with teachers, SNAs and inclusion supports. In relation to support provided in the north-east inner city project, it should be noted that in order to be classified as a north-east inner city primary school, the primary school must be a DEIS urban band 1 school located within the north-east inner city boundaries. St. Joseph's Primary School in Fairview is not located within the boundaries and does not have the DEIS urban band 1 status. Ten primary schools located within the north-east inner city with DEIS band 1 status, in addition to having the high percentage of pupils enrolled within the north-east inner city, are classified as such schools. It is important to recognise the challenges outlined by the Deputy and to compliment the team working there. I have no doubt that they are doing extraordinary work, particularly in relation to the challenges the Deputy outlined. We will be publishing the new DEIS strategy in the coming months but issues like that will have to be fed into that process as well. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-28/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-28