Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are serious funding issues facing the Educate Together organisation and I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, for attending to discuss them. My colleague, Senator Averil Power, and I have met members of Educate Together in my area, in which there are Educate Together schools in Balbriggan, Skerries, Swords, Malahide, Holywell, Thornleigh, Rush and Lusk. It is good that parents have a choice in how they want their children to be taught. However, there is a major issue, one which relates to all patron bodies, namely, the initial costs of establishment of schools. To give an example, in Britain Educate Together opened a primary school in Bristol, for which a total of £230,000 sterling was paid to the Educate Together Academy Trust. One can strip away some of the things for which we would pay, but it is still over £100,000 sterling more than a school here would receive. If Educate Together establishes a school in temporary accommodation here, as it has done in Malahide, it will receive a one-off payment of €10,000 and that is it. That is not sustainable.

In September this year there were 74 primary schools in the Educate Together sector which believes, based on its research, that we will need 300 such schools. It is not scaremongering in stating this or stating we will need to close down any school or anything like it. What it is stating is that this issue is inhibiting its ability to set up schools, particularly secondary schools. To be very fair to it, it is not being selfish about this and it has mentioned that this is an issue that affects all patron bodies. This issue needs to be addressed specifically for Educate Together, for which I have a lot of regard. I am glad to say my own party was very involved in providing for parental choice when my party leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, was the then Minister for Education and Science. We need to do something about the provision of funding for the establishment of schools, given that there are ongoing issues in this regard. I am interested in hear whating the Minister of State has to say.