Educational Disadvantage
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
============================================================

Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I will certainly pass on the comments to the Minister. She brings a wealth of experience because she served in the role I am in now quite recently so has a good understanding and has hit the ground running on these issues.
It is not right. We are putting forward a programme and there is huge commitment by the Government. A total of €180 million is being put into this matter currently and more money will be pumped into it again this year and again in 2027. That shows that the Government, including the Minister, and the Department of education understand the positive benefits of DEIS for school communities and, more importantly, how it has helped students and given them the best possible chance in life. I constantly say it. We have done this continuously in Ireland. One thing we can be exceptionally proud of is the education system we have developed over 100 years. It has served us extremely well. The more investment we can put into education - the Deputy mentioned this in relation to special classes, but into all education, whether it is in disadvantaged areas or whatever - the better. It is a great leveller in terms of giving people the best possible chance.
The DEIS programme looks at making sure pupils stay in school and get the best possible outcomes from school. That may be difficult in some circumstances but we will work with the Deputy. If the Deputy puts in the full details, we will respond accordingly. There is just one thing. The Deputy mentioned Youghal being rural. Where I come from at the other side of the county, in a particularly rural part of the world, I would nearly call Youghal a city. That being said, I will continue to work with the Deputy.

---

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/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10