Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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29. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when primary schools will be notified of a payment date for funding under the minor works grant scheme. [52198/17]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Tá áthas orm bheith anseo chun an cheist seo a chuir ar an Aire ar maidin. The question might appear to be somewhat moot but I do not believe it is. It asks when primary schools will be notified of a payment date for funding. I believed it was necessary to table a question on the minor works grant because of the incredible delays in that respect this year and the stress caused to principles because of that. The Minister will not mind my expanding it to encompass the press release issued yesterday regarding the minor works grant which contained the bombshell of an indication that the grant may not be paid in 2018. I ask the Minister what was meant by that statement in the press release.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy knows, this issue has been raised in the House in the past few weeks, including by members of his party, and I explained at that stage that money was very tight but we were reviewing the capital position for the end of the year and I was endeavouring to find a solution. I am pleased to tell the House that I yesterday announced that €28.8 million minor works grant funding for primary schools throughout the country will be paid next week. The applicable rates are €5,500 per school plus €18.50 per mainstream pupil and €74 per special needs pupil attending the school. The grant allows schools to carry out minor works without needing to deal directly with the Department by way of capital application. This has always been a residual sum. There is no annual provision for the grant and it has always been set out in the circular that it depends on the availability of resources. I appreciate that many people believe that is unsatisfactory.

The Deputy asked whether the grant will be paid next year. In view of the flow of new school commitments we will need to meet, it is currently unlikely that we will be in a position to pay a minor works grant during calendar year 2018 and it will probably have to be paid early in 2019. I make that announcement in order to give schools adequate notice of our position. People will appreciate that there has been a strong surge in the number of pupils in the school system and that the priority for the Department must be to ensure that those children have a school to which to go each September. That has been the focus of our provision and we successfully delivered 19,000 permanent places this year.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I am grateful that the Minister has confirmed the information contained in yesterday's press release. It will come as a bombshell to schools throughout the country that there will be no minor works grant next year and that it is likely to be paid in January 2019. According to the press release, the Minister will decide in January 2019 whether money is available to pay the grant but the Minister has said it will be paid at that stage. That would be utterly unsatisfactory for the House. The Minister must tell his Cabinet colleagues, including the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, that this is not a discretionary grant but, rather, money on which schools have come to depend toward the back end of every year to do necessary minor works and without which they could not function. What should happen and what Fianna Fáil advocates is that the scheme and others like it should be put on a statutory footing such that Ministers would not have discretion over them. It is noteworthy that the grant was not paid in only one year during the recession. I ask the Minister to confirm that. It would be bizarre if, as the economy starts to turn, this were to be the key turning point at which the grant would not be paid. This relates to issues I have previously discussed with the Minister, such as his capital budget being under severe pressure due to various factors, including the price of land. I hope that as part of the national capital plan he will highlight to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, that the grant is absolutely necessary for schools.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister and all Deputies to try to keep to time allocations in order to facilitate as many questions as possible being answered.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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It is a discretionary grant, not a permanent one and is not part of the first call on a capital budget. As the Deputy recognised, it has not been paid every year. Nonetheless, I recognise the point he has made and am very keen that as we shape our ten-year long-term capital plan schemes such as this would become a permanent fixture and I will be putting that case to the Government. However, I have to manage the budget available to me as prudently as possible in order to deliver the needs of the education system. The Deputy knows, as do all Members, that during the crash capital budgets dropped to one third of what they were, which has put pressure on meeting demands in an area such as this wherein there are increasing needs in terms of demographics, special education and so on. A balance must be struck and I believe that my decision is reasonable and I am accomodating the needs of all stakeholders in the system as best I can.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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It would be unthinkable for the grant not to be paid next year. I hope that the Minister's press release turns out to be wrong and that he revises his ambition regarding the minor works grant for next year. Schools will not function without it and repairs will go undone. This week, principals were preparing to go to banks to seek overdrafts to fund projects it had been intended to fund out of the grant. The Minister said it has not been paid every year. However, it was not paid in only one year, which was in the depths of the recession and caused considerable controversy, difficulty and hardship. That cannot be allowed to happen as the economy begins to turn. The grant must be paid and put on a statutory footing, as Fianna Fáíl is seeking, such that schools can have certainty on how they will be funded. The back end of the year would be a financial black hole for schools if they did not have the grant. They have come to depend on the Government for this funding and rightly so because they are publicly funded schools.

They should not have to reach into their own pockets or opt for further fundraising on top of the burdens they place on parents already.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I understand what the Deputy said. I will seek to have this incorporated in a ten-year plan but I have no doubt that if Deputy Barry Cowen was here he would be demanding extra capital spending on housing and if Deputy Kelleher was here he would be demanding extra capital spending on health-----

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Those Departments are not cutting capital spending. The Minister is cutting a project.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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-----but the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, has to add up all those demands and ensure a balance is achieved in terms of what is affordable. That is the exercise that has to be done each year at budget time but I take the point the Deputy is making. I would certainly like to see this being put on a permanent footing over time but this is a reasonable arrangement for the schools.