The number of schools with access to Home School Community Liason supports in Cavan and Monaghan have been revealed.
The question was raised by local TD Brendan Smith.
In response to Deputy Smith's question, Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton said a pilot project has been introduced to extend HSCL provision to 130 additional schools in the DEIS Rural band and outside the existing DEIS programme.
She said the scheme aims to address educational disadvantage by strengthening links between schools, parents, guardians and community services.
The Minister confirmed that in Cavan, of the 86 primary and post-primary schools 14% are now receiving HSCL support.
While in Monaghan 18% of 74 schools will have access to the service.
She said the new allocations represent an increase in HSCL support for 9% of schools in Cavan and 8% of schools in Monaghan.
The HSCL scheme is a core element of the DEIS programme and forms part of the wider Tusla Education Support Service.
Minister Naughton said that schools included in the HSCL pilot project were identified using nationally available data relating to concentrations of educational disadvantage.
She added that a school not selected for participation in the recent HSCL pilot expansion does not imply that educational disadvantage does not exist within the school community.
