Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Basically, this will penalise the Church of Ireland ethos, the Presbyterian ethos and the Jewish ethos, as these are the only schools in the country who receive funds for capitation and day-to-day expenses. This is a major change of policy on Fine Gael's part. However, there has been no change of policy in Fianna Fáil or the Government. We continue to pay the teachers of the fee paying second level schools, irrespective of religious ethos. The Church of Ireland schools have traditionally received 100% grants for their capital programmes and continue to do so. Successive Governments, including Governments led by Deputy Enright's party, have done so and this has not changed.

As far as Catholic fee paying schools are concerned, traditionally approximately 50% has been given depending on the available funds. In or around 1999, the former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Martin, came close to signing off on such an arrangement, but it has not always been possible to do so depending on the amount of money available. However, the policy of funding the capital programmes for fee paying schools has been in place since the foundation of the State. It is Fine Gael policy which has changed, which is a serious and retrograde step for the minority religions.

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