The principal of a west Dublin primary school has outlined her severe disappointment over its non-inclusion in a new scheme that will see greater supports targeted at schools serving children in the country's most disadvantaged communities.
Mary O'Riordan, principal of St Patrick's Senior School in Corduff, Blanchardstown - an area beset in recent years by a vicious feud involving local rival gangs - said there was "absolute devastation" at the school this week when they learned they were not included in the new DEIS plus scheme.
"I’ve worked here for 26 years and I love Corduff," she said. "Some of the best people I know are from Corduff, but the level of disadvantage is huge, the levels of addiction, of poverty, of crime.
"Lots of our parents are doing a brilliant job but others are really struggling which means their children are struggling too," she added.
They are all urban schools with consistently high concentrations of children and young people at very high risk of educational disadvantage.
They were identified using a new model which combined data from a number of sources in order to identify areas with the most persistent and intergenerational disadvantage.
The model uses a number of indicators, such as homelessness, unemployment, lone parenthood, and Traveller/Roma ethnicity. There is no indication that crime levels in an area have been included as a factor.
The school learned the news on the same day that five members of a local organised crime group were sentenced to jail over an attack that the judge said bypassed "any notion of humanity", which involved beating, burning, stabbing and branding their victim with the word 'RAT'.
Ms O’Riordan described "huge homelessness issues, lots of overcrowding in houses with children with additional needs."
Addressing the impact of crime in the area, Ms O'Riordan said: "Children come into my office crying because their siblings are getting involved in criminality. They are saying they haven’t slept because the windows were smashed in.
"If a child has family members involved in crime, that doesn’t stop us from loving them," she said.
"We love them and we want to look after them.
"We are so respectful to our children and they are so respectful back. We offer so many supports," she said.
"We do everything we possibly can, but our children need that, and they need more."
The additional supports that will be offered to these 121 schools from September include a full-time teacher dedicated to promoting mental health and wellbeing among pupils.
St Patrick's Senior and Junior schools both pay a trained counsellor and play therapist to work at each school one day per week.
The cost is €350 per day. The schools used to pay for four days [two days each], but they can no longer afford to maintain this level of support.
"But both of our schools need this counselling service five days a week", Ms O'Riordan said.
The school is hoping to open a nurture room, which is a dedicated space in a school that is used to reassure and comfort troubled and agitated children so that they can feel secure enough to learn.
"Very often a child comes in and you can tell just straight away that something has happened and they are not ready to learn.
"Our children need that nurture room but because we haven’t been included in DEIS Plus we don’t have a teacher to put in that room," she said.
A spokesperson for Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton said: "Any school can apply and appeal for DEIS Plus status and all submissions will be reviewed to ensure that the methodology has been applied fairly and appropriately in every case."
St Patrick's Senior School is among a number of primary schools extremely upset at their non-inclusion in DEIS Plus.
The school is 2km from another primary school that has been included in DEIS Plus, and says it "cannot understand" why it has been left out.
St Patrick's Senior School will appeal the decision when an appeals process opens after Easter.
