Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Gross expenditure in the order of €241 million was incurred by my Department on salaries for teachers and special needs assistants (including employer’s PRSI) in fee-charging schools across the 2020/21 and 2021/22 school years.

Capital supports (building-related and ICT grants) are also available to such schools and these totaled over €5.9 million across the calendar years 2021 and 2022. In addition, specific Covid-19 grant funding of €6 million was paid to these schools for hand sanitizer, enhanced cleaning and supervision across the 2020/21 and 2021/22 school years.

The figures given relate to the gross costs of fee-charging schools and not the net financial position. Given that the Pupil Teacher Ratio is 19:1 for free scheme schools and 23:1 in fee-charging schools, the figures above do not take into account the additional cost associated with the greater number of teachers that would need to be employed if the pupils in fee-charging schools were instead enrolled in schools in the free scheme.