Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of school funding. Yesterday, the Taoiseach informed the Dáil about the work of the financial support services unit in the Department of Education. Three school principals have been in touch with me who do not want to make a public matter of the issue but who want to get to the bottom of funding issues they are having. I have looked at the books in some of these schools. There are big questions about the funding for insurance, heating and cleaning. All of them are schools that in the sixties and seventies would have had 700 or 800 pupils and are now operating at 15% or 20% of that. There is an issue in the Department with those large schools. I encourage the Minister to try to come up with a bespoke solution bespoke for them. They are located all across north Dublin. We need to examine how we are funding them in addition to the capitation grant, while ensuring that they retain responsibility for managing their own finances. This is a real issue.

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