Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

There is no change in policy in that regard. Only ten of the almost 1,200 school projects which are being funded for building this year are for fee paying schools. A number of them are for Protestant schools which receive 100% grants anyway. The announcement made last week did not concern schools that will be going to tender or construction this week. It only concerned those moving forward to the architectural planning stage. Consequently, the amount of expenditure on them this year will be very small because it will only be for fees. We have not changed. However, the Fine Gael Party should explain its position to the minority religions.

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