Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)

I had to check my phone because in the Deputy's new guise as Oireachtas AI committee chairperson, I had to see if he had been reading my phone for the correspondence I have just had with the principal of a local national school in my area on more or less this exact point. This is an issue that regularly comes up for every Member of this House and I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House, on behalf of the Minister, the position as to why the capitation grant for primary schools is less than that paid to secondary schools.

As the Deputy knows, the Government is committed to increasing funding to support schools and the programme for Government commits to increasing capitation funding to all schools of all types to ensure they can meet the elevated day to day running costs. The commitment in the programme for Government builds on the progress that has been made in recent years including a more than €30 million permanent increase in capitation funding. This represents an increase of circa 12% on current standard rates and results in the standard rates increasing from €200 to €224 for primary schools and from €345 to €386 per student in post-primary schools from September 2025. Over the past two budgets there has been an increase of 22%, give or take, in the level of capitation rates paid to all schools.

The Department is committed to providing funding to recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education scheme by way of per capita grants. The two main grants are the capitation grant to cater for day to day running costs such as heating, lighting, cleaning, insurance and general upkeep and the ancillary grant to cater for the cost of employing ancillary services staff. Schools have the flexibility to use capitation funding provided for general running costs and ancillary funding provided for caretaking and secretarial services as a common grant from which the board of management can allocate according to its own priorities. Primary schools with fewer than 60 pupils are paid the capitation and ancillary grants on the basis of having 60 pupils, no less. In addition to these grants, €45 million in cost-of-living supports were issued in November 2024 to support all recognised primary and post-primary schools in the free education system. This additional funding announced in the budget is designed to assist schools with increased day to day running costs such as the heating and electricity issues laid out by the Deputy. The funding was paid at a rate of €36 per pupil in primary schools and €55 per student in post-primary schools. Enhanced rates were also paid in respect of pupils with special educational needs and pupils from a Traveller background.

The Department of Education is aware that costs and funding can pose a particular problem for schools, and is constantly working to address this matter and to enhance the financial and other supports available. While not wishing to pre-empt the outcomes of any future budget negotiations or fiscal parameters agreed by Government, the Department will continue to seek and prioritise the funding required to meet the ongoing costs. It is difficult to make precise comparisons between the levels of grants paid and the actual costs of running schools at primary and post-primary level. In general, and put simply, post-primary schools are larger than primary schools. They have specialist rooms such as laboratories, workshops etc. This leads to higher unit costs for heat, light, power, maintenance and cleaning. There are also additional resources required at post-primary level for specialist subjects, such as home economics, wood technology, engineering, graphics and applied technology. There is therefore a difference in the level of capitation funding provided to primary and post-primary schools. The current standard rate of capitation grant is €200 per pupil in primary schools and €345 per student in post-primary schools.

What the Department will not let me say is that it is not that we are comparing apples and oranges. It is that perhaps we are comparing Golden Delicious and Granny Smiths. They are different sized entities, and the pupils are a different size. There are more staff and a requirement for more staff. The costs are on the basis that trying to provide catering facilities in post-primary schools is different from the resources needed for the free hot school meals provided at primary level. There will always be a need to increase the funding for both primary and post-primary but there will always be a difference between those schools which the Deputy and I know clearly through our work.

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