Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity to address the funding of schools in the ETB and voluntary secondary school sectors. The Department has different models of funding to meet the needs of the different types of post-primary school, including those in the Irish-medium sector. The funding arrangements made by the Department for voluntary secondary, community and comprehensive and ETB schools and colleges reflect the different management and ownership arrangements that apply to schools at post-primary level.

Voluntary secondary schools in the free education scheme, which are privately owned and managed, are funded by the Department by way of per capitagrants. An additional per capitagrant, known as the Irish and bilingual grant, is paid to secondary schools in the voluntary sector in which instruction is through the medium of Irish in full or in part. Such a grant is not paid to schools in either the community and comprehensive or the ETB sectors. Instead, the arrangements that apply in the ETB sector are that financial allocations are made to ETBs as part of a block grant. ETBs are given a high level of autonomy in the management and appropriation of this grant and each ETB has the autonomy to distribute its allocations in line with its own priorities and needs. As such, funding is allocated not to individual schools but to the ETB itself for allocation among the schools within its remit. The block grant model covers not only the day-to-day costs of schools but also the running costs of the ETB head office and other activities apart from the second level programme. This approach differs from the capitation grants provided to voluntary secondary schools.

In the context of Irish-medium education, work on the development of a new policy on Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht is under way in the Department. This policy will sit within the overall framework of the 20-year strategy for the Irish language and build on the achievements of the policy on Gaeltacht education. The policy will be an important step towards achieving the programme for Government commitments on Irish in the education system. The key objectives of the policy are in accordance with the 20-year strategy for the Irish language and include the provision of a framework for the delivery of high-quality Irish-medium education in settings outside of the Gaeltacht. An extensive public consultation process has been conducted to gather the views of stakeholders, including young people, parents, education professionals, education stakeholders and Irish-language organisations, and a wide range of issues have been raised. This has included funding of Irish-medium schools, among other topics. The issues raised in that consultation are being considered by officials in the Department as part of the work on the development of the policy on Irish-medium education outside of the Gaeltacht.

I heard what the Deputy said about the grant of €110.50, which goes to voluntary but not ETB schools, and she pointed to the fact most Gaeltacht schools are run by ETBs. I also heard what she said about the fact a lot of them are multidenominational and are located in disadvantaged DEIS areas. As I explained, however, it is part of a block grant, that is, a very different funding model, and is not the capitation grant provided to voluntary secondary schools. The funding is allocated not to individual schools but to the ETB itself for allocation among the schools within its remit. That block grant model covers not only the day-to-day costs of schools but also the running costs of the ETB head office and other activities apart from the second level programme.

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