Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, I am pleased to be given the opportunity to confirm to the House the Government's continued commitment to Protestant schools and to clarify the position on the funding arrangements for fee-charging Protestant schools. I assure the Senator that the Minister and his colleagues in Government recognise the importance of ensuring students from a Protestant background can attend a school that reflects their denominational ethos.

Since the changes in the October 2008 budget, the Minister has had several meetings with representatives of the Protestant community, as has the Taoiseach. Just last week, the Minister had a constructive meeting with representatives of the Protestant education sector. These meetings have outlined the background to the changes in the October 2008 budget, and have explored future funding arrangements. Concern has been expressed over two aspects of the budgetary changes.

The first aspect relates to the allocation of teachers to all fee-charging schools. By making the changes to the pupil-teacher ratio, the Government recognised that such schools, regardless of religious ethos, have extra income which they can use and have used to employ additional teachers. If the Minister had not made this change, he would have been faced with making a more severe change to the staffing position of all schools. The measures that differentiated between those schools with fee income and those without were fairer to all schools. The case that has been made is that this change should not apply to Protestant fee-charging schools.

The second aspect is the withdrawal of certain grants that had been paid to Protestant fee-charging schools that were not paid to Catholic fee-charging schools. The argument has been made that the grants should be restored. There may be an impression among the general public, as supported by media comment, that the block grant has been abolished. No changes have been made to the block grant, which has amounted to €6.5 million in 2009. The Minister has made a commitment that the block grant will remain in place. The block grant covers capitation, tuition and boarding costs and is distributed through the secondary education committee established by the churches concerned. This fund ensures that necessitous Protestant children can attend a school of their choice. This grant remains in place.

The Constitution, in Article 44, permits State aid to denominational schools, but only on the basis that there be no discrimination between schools under different religious management. The Department has legal advices on this matter, including advice from the Attorney General. The Minister is satisfied that the budget changes are consistent with the Constitution. If resources are provided to Protestant fee-charging schools as a special case, there is a constitutional difficulty.

The Minister has consistently expressed his willingness to consider any proposals that would enable the available funding to be focused and adjusted to meet more effectively the twin objectives of access for individuals and sustaining the schools that they wish to attend, particularly those in rural areas. The Minister for Education and Science will continue to work with representatives of the Protestant educational sector to ensure State funding made available to the Protestant community is targeted in the fairest way possible to meet the needs of their children and their schools.