Educational Disadvantage
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-10
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Michael Moynihan (FF), Cork North-West

I accept that engagement by all political representatives with regard to school communities in disadvantaged areas is hugely important because education is a fundamental. It can determine the trajectory of someone whether he or she is in a disadvantaged area or elsewhere. I do understand that the Deputies have a real and genuine engagement within the education sector.
Although St. Dominic's National School was not identified for inclusion in DEIS plus, that does not diminish in any way the challenges faced by the school communities and the outstanding work done there by the school leadership and all of the team working in the school and dealing with disadvantage.
Due to the appeals process, the Deputies will understand that it is important for me not to comment on that process right now and I do not intend to. The criteria set down very early on aimed to make sure that we were targeting the most disadvantaged communities across the country. The resources we were putting in - there are significant resources in DEIS plus and indeed the entire DEIS programme - are to ensure that disadvantage is dealt with within the communities. A number of Deputies have raised issues about the criteria but they are transparent. Deputy Ahern spoke about them not reflecting some of the things that are outside of them but, in the first instance, it is important that the appeals process is dealt with and that it is brought to a conclusion as early as possible. We are hopeful that decision will be taken by the end of June 2026, so the school will have certainty for next year. I do understand that there is disadvantage in other communities that has not been captured but we are targeting resources in the best possible way.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10