Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

There is a difficulty with the level of school funding and capitation funding in schools seeking to encourage both a community use and a return on the use of their school building. We would encourage them to have access to other funding but we would not set down that they must charge commercial rates for activities on school premises. We very much support the concept of school premises being used by the communities outside of school hours. Schools, including caretaker staff and so on, need to support the use of buildings. It is not just a matter of a building being there to be used; there is infrastructure around it. People would not normally be there in the evening, and so forth. Schools have to pay somebody to come in to monitor the use of the building or to facilitate access. That may be why a school engages in that activity but it is not something that we regulate.