The management boards at Coláiste Dún Iascaigh in Cahir and the Edmund Rice Secondary School in Carrick-on-Suir are aghast, hugely disappointed and bewildered at being refused DEIS status. All of the national schools in Cahir and Carrick-on-Suir have DEIS status so what is the difference? There is no clarity or reason given for their exclusion. They were refused, they appealed and the appeals have been unsuccessful for both schools. Siblings are coming in from national schools that have DEIS status and then they go to a secondary school that does not have that status. It is grossly unfair and unjust and we must get an explanation from the Department of how it makes these decisions. I welcome that Newtown Upper National School in Drangan got DEIS status, as did St. John the Baptist Boys' National School in Cashel. These secondary schools need DEIS status also. The feeder schools have DEIS status but they do not.

I thank the Deputy for his question. My understanding is that there has been a substantial increase in the number of schools eligible for DEIS status and the number of DEIS schools is almost double what it was previously. An appeal mechanism is available to schools that believe they should have DEIS status. If the Deputy gives me the details of the case, I will pass them on to the Department which may be able to revisit it.