Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection

Issues Facing Small Primary Schools: Discussion

2:25 pm

Mr. Hubert Loftus:

In fairness to the Minister, it has been only with him for three weeks. It is comprehensive. He has many priorities with which to be dealing. He is in the Dáil today answering questions and, in fairness, he will want to consult with his Government colleagues and then publish it in due course.

In terms of the Church of Ireland schools and the impact the budget measure might have, it is important to clarify that the Department treats schools of all types of patronage equally. The schools with fewer than 86 pupils, which were in the cohort to be affected by the budget 2012 measure, represent approximately 1,100 schools. About 10% of those schools would have been in the Church of Ireland family of schools. Of those 1,100 schools, there was an impact in respect of 64 schools in 2012 and of those 64, approximately 10% would have been in the Church of Ireland family of schools.