Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I have called on the Minister for Education and Science to outline the plans in place to increase the capitation grant to voluntary secondary schools to meet the cost of insurance. I have raised this issue because I have been contacted by the management of the Catholic Secondary Schools Association and by my local secondary school, Loreto College, Letterkenny.

This issue is specific to voluntary and private schools and does not include comprehensive or vocational schools. There are problems with the insurance industry across the board but it is now affecting schools. Between 1997 and 2002, insurance costs rose from €24,500 to €35,000 for a school with 533 pupils, an increase of 45%. Voluntary and private schools are being treated differently even though they were given a commitment following the publication of the Blackstock report that stated that insurance payments should be made to voluntary secondary schools to compensate for the State funding of principal insurance costs of comprehensive and community schools.

The Minister of Education and Science admitted in 2001 that there is a major gap to be bridged but that gap still exists today. It is inappropriate that a secondary school in Letterkenny has to reduce heating and lighting and cut back on essential services to students and on essential purchases as a result of the lack of a capitation grant towards insurance. The schools are seeking €50 per pupil to go towards the increase in insurance costs.

I hope the response I get is specific to the matter – capitation grants to voluntary schools for insurance costs – and not the usual script written by a civil servant that tells how much money has been spent across the country. The Minister of State has a script and will do his best to be specific but I do not want a recital of the Government's achievements since 1997 because such scripts make a mockery of Adjournment debates. It would be better if debates were specific to the question.