John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was struck by the comment on the impact on children of voluntary contributions to schools and so forth. I recently had cause to examine the capitation grants paid to two schools in my constituency. Obviously, the capitation rate is so much per child per annum. As the schools in question had approximately 200 students, they were receiving approximately €35,000 per year. Without getting into their full accounts, their annual insurance premium was €11,000, while their lighting and heating costs were between €16,000 and €17,000. These figures do not include items such as cleaning, photocopying and so forth. When I looked at the figures for a school that was double the size, the figures for lighting, heating and insurance did not double. The schools that are somewhat smaller are struggling disproportionately. If they had double the number of students, they would not have double the costs. I was taken by the real challenge posed to these schools because when one took out the bare necessities, it simply was not doable. I accept that point.