I wish to raise an issue that was also raised by our leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, regarding DEIS schools and the commitment that was given in the programme for Government in this regard. The Department of Education and Skills this morning, in response to a freedom of information request, indicated that 257 schools met the qualification criteria for DEIS but have not received any funding, including a number in my constituency, among five in Tipperary town. These schools have not yet got any satisfactory answer as to why they did not receive funding, even though it now seems they met the criteria.

I have already answered this question. I assure the Deputy that no school was excluded. What happened this year was that we expanded the programme to bring in 79 additional schools. No school in the scheme was withdrawn; we have expanded the scheme. We have considered extending the scheme further in future years. This was the subject of the freedom of information request, and it was in the context of the possibility of extending the scheme that the number the Deputy mentioned arose. No school is being excluded from any criteria. The existing scheme is upheld in all respects. The new scheme that we introduced brought in 79 additional schools. We will examine the new 2016 data to see whether there are schools that would qualify at that high level of disadvantage that did not get in among the 79. If there are such schools, we will include them, but a wider extension is a matter for future years.