Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of private education. Recent news reports outlined that the Department of Education and Skills had commissioned research into the level of funding for private schools which was over and above the resources of non-private State run schools. It was disclosed that the top nine or ten private schools had in the region of an additional ¤2 million available to them over and above that of a State funded school. The report also stated that if all of the privately-funded schools joined the State system it would cost the State somewhere in the region of an additional ¤24 million. That raises an issue which is worthy of discussion in the House, namely, the future and role of private education. We could discuss whether there is a role for private education and whether it should be State policy to encourage private schools back into the State system.

I note that a significant number of young people have, for the sake of argument, abandoned their private health cover. I know that we have a strategy towards expanding health cover but there is a concern that there is a cohort of people, particularly young people, who are now exposed when it comes to being covered for health care. There is an issue around privatisation, whether that is the privatisation of education or health care. I call on the Leader to arrange an indepth debate on private education.