Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The issue I am raising with the Minister of State is astonishing in its injustice. There is a situation whereby schools across the country have welcomed children from refugee and asylum-seeking families with a good heart. They are nurturing and educating those children, and have welcomed them into their schools. I want to give an example from one school in Donegal but there are many other examples I could give across the county and the country. I have one example on my desk. Sessiaghoneill National School had 152 children enrolled on 30 September, which is the date on which enrolment is reported. Within weeks, it had an extra 52 children from asylum-seeker and refugee families. That is an increase of one third in the school population. However, it has not received any additional financial support per child in the school, as would be normal. This school has nurtured, cared for and educated these children with a good heart. It estimates the situation has cost it over €30,000. It has nothing left in its bank account. Apparently, officials from the Department of Education advised the school to consider going to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul or the Red Cross.

That is a school that was looking to care for and nurture children. It has been left in considerable financial difficulty and nobody will resolve the issue for it. Everybody says they are sorry but if the kids in question are not registered on 30 September, nothing can be done. That is crazy bureaucracy. People are looking at this situation whereby the resources of the school have run dry. There are also people who are organising accommodation across the country and making a hell of a lot of money from this crisis. Some of them are very good at providing accommodation and some of them are not so good but are still making a hell of a lot of money from this crisis. This is a small school and we are leaving it €30,000 in the red while we are enriching some people across the State. People see that. They are intelligent and see that. I am sure the Minister of State will agree that this is wrong. There will be schools across the country with tremendous people who are nurturers, educators and carers, providing wonderful environments for these kids who are coming from all sorts of situations. The lives of those kids have been turned upside down and they have experienced enormous trauma. These are exactly the types of environments we want them to be in. The people who make provision for them should be compensated, at the very least. Children from the parish in question and children who have come here from another country should both attract the same level of financial assistance from the Department. This situation is wrong. It is bureaucracy.

I know the Minister of State is going to read a statement on behalf of the Department of Education which will lay out some formulaic policy. He, like me, is a public representative. I think he knows that what I am describing is absolutely wrong on every single level. I ask him to please engage with the Department officials and the Minister to find some practical solution. We cannot have a situation where schools are being impoverished while people who are speculative developers are making a huge amount of money from this crisis.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I am responding on the behalf of the Minister for Education, who I know is conscious of the need to ensure that schools are supported, enabling them to maximise teaching and learning outcomes for all students. It is vitally important that the education system is one where all children and young people feel equally supported. All migrant children, including children of international protection applicants, refugees, migrant workers and unaccompanied minors can access preschool, primary and post-primary education in a manner similar to Irish nationals until they are 18.

My Department provides funding to all recognised schools in the free education scheme by way of per capitagrants. These grants are based on recognised enrolments in the September of the relevant school year. The Department provided more than €660 million in capitation grants to schools in 2022.

School staffing arrangements at primary and post-primary levels are primarily determined by the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on 30 September. The special education teaching, SET, allocation model provides all schools with a baseline teaching allocation based on enrolments to help pupils who have learning and literacy difficulties, including those arising from English additional language needs. In addition to the normal staffing allocation to schools I have outlined, which are based on the previous September's enrolment figures, additional English-language support teachers and mainstream class teachers have been made available to schools on an ongoing basis through the school year to support pupil enrolments arising from the war in Ukraine and the rising number of families seeking asylum. Additional SET hours were also provided in 2022-23 to deal with the increased enrolments of these pupils in our schools. A similar scheme will be in place for the 2023-24 school year. In the case of special needs assistants, the support is allocated based on the advice of the National Council for Special Education.

For the 2023-24 school year, the Minister has introduced a landmark new scheme that signifies a new chapter in Irish primary education to provide free school books for all primary and special school pupils. In March last year the Minister was glad to be able to announce a major expansion of the DEIS programme, benefiting 361 schools, which has taken the total expenditure on DEIS in 2023 to over €180 million. We have also recently announced a new pilot programme to start in September to provide significant counselling and mental health supports to children in primary schools. As part of the cost-of-living measures introduced in budget 2023, some €90 million issued at the end of 2022 in once-off additional capitation funding to support increased running costs for recognised schools in the free education scheme.

I will bring the Deputy's points and what he has said back to the Department. I want to hear more from the Deputy afterwards about the statement that somebody from the Department told a school to go to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. If that is the case, we need to know about it because that is certainly not the policy of the Department of Education.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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As I have said, what I have here in front of me is a brief that was sent from the school to the Deputies in Donegal. I quote directly from this brief where it says: "In fact we were advised by Department representatives to contact our local Red Cross or St. Vincent de Paul." That is their testimony, so somebody has done that.

The report also shows that they have 52 additional children. Normally a school would get capitation rates per child. Covid cleaning comes from that along with minor works, free school books grants, ancillary services grants, once-off cost-of-living grants, standardised testing grants and digital strategy grants. That is the level of grants per capita. It is €30,000. If these children had been registered two weeks previously, the school would have had €30,000. It is not defensible. The school is telling me that there is nothing left in the accounts. The school has been wonderful. They have created a safe, educating and nurturing environment for these children and they are happy to do it. They believe that these children add to their school. They are more than happy to do it but they are being punished and impoverished for doing the right thing. That cannot stand. I have raised this through a parliamentary question with the Minister and today I am nearly begging that this would be resolved. The Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, is aware that there are people who have made a hell of a lot of money from this crisis, who have just turned around buildings and made accommodation available. They have made a lot of money and they are doing really well, thank you very much, in this crisis. We cannot have this happening and yet a school that has done right by our people and tries to support these children from refugee and asylum seeker families, including traumatised children, would be financially impoverished. This must be sorted out. Surely somebody in the Department can intervene and sort this out.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I will certainly take all of that back to the Department and to my senior Minister. I understand the need for increased capitation funding. Capitation rates have increased by 7.5% in recent years and all schools have benefited from that. The Minister intends to seek funding for further capitation increases in future budgets. In addition, the scope of the regional education and language teams has expanded beyond serving Ukrainian families. It now encompasses the educational needs of all international protection asylum seeker arrivals. I reiterate the Department's commitment to supporting children from refugee and asylum seeker families so they are enabled to continue their education in the State. The Department and the Minister will work to ensure that the funding and resources in place are appropriate to meet the needs of this cohort of children and young people. The bottom line for the Government in all of this is to ensure that all of our obligations and the humanitarian needs of refugees and people under the temporary protection directive are met, that our legal obligations are met, and that the humanitarian rights are protected. It is not about who is making money or not making money; it is about making sure everybody gets what they need. We absolutely accept that the schools need the resources. The Department is committed to providing the resources, as I have outlined in my statements.