Education Schemes
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-12
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Hildegarde Naughton (FG), Galway West

Under the DEIS programme, 306 primary schools with the highest concentration of children at risk of educational disadvantage are included in DEIS urban band 1. These schools receive the highest level of staffing and funding available under the DEIS programme. The Department recently introduced two additional measures to support children in schools at very high levels of disadvantage. Strand 1 of the counselling and primary schools pilot was extended to 61 urban DEIS primary schools in Tallaght, Clondalkin, Ballymun, Finglas and Darndale. This pilot provides one-to-one counselling support for children most in need. Funding was also provided for the appointment of 15 community link workers to support Traveller and Roma children and those at risk of educational disadvantage. These roles will work with families, schools and communities to improve attendance, participation and achievement in education.
Regarding the DEIS plus programme, it will be targeted towards schools at the highest level of educational disadvantage. They will not need to apply to become a DEIS plus school.

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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/2026-02-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-12