This is probably the last interaction the Taoiseach and I will have for a while as I have got a new job.

Where are you working?

Bonjour. When the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance do not remember the 1990 World Cup, you realise you are a total aul' fella and need to get out.

The important point I want to make today, in what is probably the last interaction I will have with the Taoiseach for a while, is on an issue I have raised a number of times in recent years. It is the reason I got involved in politics in the first place. It is about disadvantaged education, DEIS schools and DEIS plus. DEIS plus is a proposal for three areas in Dublin - Tallaght, Ballymun and Dublin 17 - to replicate what has been happening in Dublin 1, which is a multidisciplinary approach to trauma-based supports for the most acutely disadvantaged schools.

When I raise this with the Minister for Education, she always gives me a positive response but she says there is an OECD review in the second quarter of 2024 of the entirety of the DEIS system. That is fine and we have now come through that period. The difference between the job of the Taoiseach and our job is that a Taoiseach who cares passionately about something can really make it happen very quickly. The problem with being a Member of the Opposition is that if we care passionately about something, we have to cajole, lobby, meet, try to amend legislation and try to plead with Ministers. The great thing about the Taoiseach's position is that if he decided that DEIS plus needed to happen, it could happen and we would not need to wait for budgetary decisions or long discussions about it. If he were passionate about it, it could happen.

We are talking about 100 schools. We are speaking about the most profoundly disadvantaged children who are trying to battle through a suite of trauma and intergenerational disadvantage. I know the Taoiseach knows that education is the one chance that children have to break out of poverty. I understand this and the Taoiseach understands this. In the case of the schools identified by the INTO in the three areas, principals have been engaging with the Department. This has been positive and we are almost there. Will the Taoiseach give a commitment? We always ask for the Government to meet the principals but I think we have gone beyond that. I ask for an acknowledgement. We cannot just give one quarter of the schools in the country DEIS status, as we have done, and think it makes a difference to the most profoundly disadvantaged children. When we speak about crime, drugs, inequality in society and all of these issues, fundamentally a huge amount of this comes back to the chances that children have in their classrooms at the early stage. This new scheme would involve 100 schools. It has already worked in Dublin 1. Can we make it happen in the most profoundly disadvantaged schools throughout the country? These are 100 schools and the programme is DEIS plus.

On what is probably our last exchange, I wish Deputy Ó Ríordáin well. His election to the European Parliament is a major milestone for him and his party. I genuinely wish him well as he continues to represent Dublin and Ireland, albeit in a different capacity. I say to all those elected to the European Parliament that everybody in the House is rooting for them. When they go over to a major Parliament of course from time to time people wear their party jerseys but the Irish jersey is required in terms of working together on key issues. I have always enjoyed exchanges with Deputy Ó Ríordáin on a variety of issues. I have tried to work collaboratively with him on an issue I know he is passionate about, which is adult literacy.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin very much outlined the role of the Government and the role of the Opposition. It is not an unfair way of outlining it. There is another way. The odd time in this House, the Government and the Opposition can work together on issues and try to make progress. Educational disadvantage is one such area. The DEIS programme has been transformative, as Deputy Ó Ríordáin has rightly said. I was looking into this earlier. The programme now supports 240,000 students in Ireland, which is one in four students. Approximately 30% of schools are now supported by the programme. It has a budget of €180 million. It is making a real impact. As Deputy Ó Ríordáin knows, we have expanded DEIS to other schools as a recognition of its success. We want to see other iterations in taking steps forward on DEIS. Let me say as Head of the Government that this is the direction of travel we want to take.

Before getting directly into DEIS plus, I want to mention that we recently took a significant step which I think Deputy Ó Ríordáin will support. Under the leadership of the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, we have effectively introduced DEIS for preschool. I know I am speaking to the converted on this but if we believe in tackling educational disadvantage, the earlier we tackle it the better. The Equal Start programme, which effectively is DEIS for preschool, will see 700 services throughout the country benefit from extra staff and extra funding from this September. In real terms this will mean approximately 32,000 children, some of them disadvantaged children, getting the benefit of DEIS and an equal start at preschool. This is the most immediate thing. We do not need to wait for the budget and it will kick off in September.

I am conscious that Deputy Ó Ríordáin has heard warm words about DEIS plus previously, but I think there is real merit in it. As we continue to invest in education, the issues of universality and targeting arise. We are doing well on universality - we need to continue to do more - but we need to start targeting specific interventions. DEIS plus very much recognises this. The Minister is very aware of Deputy Ó Ríordáin's proposal. She has met many principals on it. The answer is that the OECD review is being completed at present. It is also being complemented by a programme of work by the Department of Education to develop further policy and to work on what is the next iteration for DEIS. The good news is that there is a timeframe for this. We expect to have the report from the OECD team this summer. We should be in a position to make policy decisions on what is next for educational disadvantage and DEIS in time for the budget in October.

Research has shown that a three-year-old from a middle-class advantaged background will have 1,200 words in their vocabulary, while a three-year-old from a disadvantaged background will have 400 words in their vocabulary. Even by the time children are three years old, there is a massive gap in their capability to reach their full potential. This is before we bring in issues such as addiction, housing and intergenerational trauma. We do not have time to waste because we are losing the potential of these incredible children. I appreciate what the Taoiseach is saying but if we were to make these interventions, it would be transformative for these lives. When I raise this, people often say there are children in non-DEIS schools who are disadvantaged. I accept all of this but there is a level of profound problems in some of these schools across the country. One principal told me the school has had to change its route to swimming every week because there is a local feud and there may be a stray bullet that kills a child.

These are the decisions principals have to make that many people in Ireland simply do not comprehend. I ask the Government to give this proposal on the investment that could be made for the potential of these children the respect it deserves and make it happen because we have money. Then we will see in ten or 20 years the benefit that will accrue from this investment at this time.

I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin. He has made me feel even stronger about the point I made in my first response about the importance of the Equal start programme. I was not aware of the statistics on three-year-olds, but they are stark. I am pleased that the Equal Start programme, which is like DEIS for pre-school, will begin this September with 32,000 of the youngest children benefiting for the first time from positive discrimination, if you like, in funding and staffing allocations. We are determined to do more on DEIS and educational disadvantage. The pathway we will follow to do that is the conclusion of the OECD research, in addition to the work the Minister, Deputy Foley, and her Department are doing at the moment. They recently concluded a consultation with approximately 200 principals of post-primary and primary schools. That, in addition to the OECD work over the summer months, will feed into the opportunity to develop the next steps on the DEIS journey.

I have a funny feeling we will hear from the Deputy again on this matter, whether he is in Dublin or Brussels, and we look forward to continuing to engage.