Brendan Ryan (Labour)

According to recent figures, Ireland spends less than 4.7% of gross domestic product on education, compared with an OECD average of 6.2%. These figures tell us what almost every parent in the country already knows, that our schools, especially our primary schools, cannot make ends meet without generous voluntary contributions, fund-raising and overdraft facilities.

A recent survey by the Irish Primary Principals Network and the National Parents Council found that in excess of 40% of parents were paying more than €100 in voluntary contributions for the day-to-day running of the schools. The IPPN also found that almost one third of parents' associations have to raise more than €10,000 a year just to keep the doors open. Another survey by the IPPN found that the average 100-pupil school received €17,300 for this academic year. Out of this it is expected to pay for heating, electricity, water and other utility bills, cleaning, repairs, insurance, office supplies and classroom materials. These basic running costs amount to an average of €34,310, leaving such a school with a deficit of approximately €17,000.

The Department is aware of this. It funds schools with a clear knowledge and understanding that they will have to contend with chronic debt from day one. A brand new school is granted €6,348 to last it from before it opens its doors in September until the capitation grant arrives in January. This sum is expected to pay for recruiting staff, equipment for classrooms, essentials such as computers, and photocopiers. Unfortunately it costs approximately €50,000 to set up a new seven-classroom school.

It is not only the paucity of funding for day-to-day running of schools, but also the methodology of delivering that funding that causes difficulties for schools, principals and parents. The capitation grant is based on school enrolment for the previous year. This means rapidly expanding schools, such as those in Balbriggan and other newer suburbs, must resource new schools from funds allocated based on outdated information. Surely it must be possible to anticipate that if there is a need for a new school in the first place, there will be a high demand for places. Most schools will have a reasonably accurate idea before September of how many pupils they will have for the next academic year. Why is the capitation grant not delivered to schools before pupils begin the school year?

Parents were promised a doubling of capitation grants for primary education prior to the previous general election. This promise has been reneged upon. A derisory increase was given in the previous budget. This promise must be fulfilled. Doubling the core capitation grant for the day-to-day running of schools is fundamentally about taking the crisis out of managing a primary school. It would cost approximately €82 million, less than 1% of the total education budget. Inflation, rising energy costs, rising insurance premiums and water charges mean that incremental increases in capitation grants are wiped out almost as soon as they are introduced.

The Department of Education and Science must be aware of the real cost of running schools. Second level schools rarely need to fund-raise for necessities. This is because when a child enters secondary school, he or she is automatically worth almost twice the amount of capitation funding as for primary schools. The core capitation grant goes towards the day-to-day running of a school, yet it costs the same to heat, light and run a building regardless of the ages of the children in it.

The primary management bodies have expressed this inbuilt inequality in stark terms. In a recent statement they said that the lack of realistic capitation and ancillary grants means that almost all schools will be sustained only by their community fund-raising efforts. This is socially divisive. Newer schools, and those in less advantaged areas are unable to match the fund-raising capabilities of those in well-off areas.