Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo my colleague's comments. It is very disappointing that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, is not here today. Three extremely important Commencement matters this morning are about education issues. The Minister should be here. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Catherine Byrne, for being here but the Minister should be here. I put forward another education issue on Commencement matters last week and it was answered by the Minister of State, Deputy English, who is the Minister of State with responsibility for housing. I was very disappointed. I am aware that it is not the fault of the Minister of State, but it is unfair. The Minister should address our Commencement matters. I will make this known to the Minister when I see him.

Ireland has long prided itself on its terrific education system. We rely too heavily, however, on an entire network of support that is not acknowledged. I wish to ask the Minister of State about the cuts to the capitation grant. In a written answer to my Dáil colleague, Deputy Jack Chambers, in March the Minister said: "I recognise the need to improve capitation funding for schools having regard to the reductions that were necessary over recent years ... restoring capitation funding as resources permit is one of the actions included in the Action Plan for Education."

There are great schools in Ireland with great school principals, great teachers and great students. Right now we are putting huge pressure on parents to keep the lights on in some schools. It is just not good enough given that parents are already paying taxes for this very reason. It is unacceptable that parents are, effectively, paying extra taxes in this regard.

The capitation grant is supposed to cover the overall cost of running a school but in reality it does not. While it costs the same amount of money to run a large primary school as a second level school, the rate of pay for one is almost three times of the other. The primary schools are losing out unless the parents reach deep into their pockets. Some schools are very lucky to have amazing fundraising committees but some schools have parents stressed out about voluntary contributions that they really cannot afford. While we spin the idea of free education if one was to ask any parent he or she will tell one that education in Ireland is far from free.

Principals in primary schools are calling for the capitation to be restored to its pre-cut level of €200 annually per child. I support this call. There are more than 500,000 children enrolled in 3,000 primary schools in Ireland. Many of these schools are small with over 50% of them having four or fewer teachers. According to the chief inspector's report on schools, Government spending per pupil has fallen by 15% since 2010 and Ireland is now spending less per primary pupil than the EU or OECD average. Of the 28 countries in the EU there are only five countries that spend less than Ireland on primary and pre-primary school age children, with Romania and Bulgaria being two examples.

According to a recent report by Grant Thornton the capitation grant now covers an average of only 52% of the running cost of a school. Last year, parents and local communities paid at least €46 million to support their local schools, which works out at an average of €14,000 per primary school or €82 per primary school pupil. This is for so-called free education. This payment is a stealth tax on parents.

I call on the Minister of State to ask the Minister to make a pledge to restore the capitation grant, by means of a phased structure or otherwise, and to relieve schools of the worry about maintenance and the minor works grant paid every year as a non-discretionary payment by the Government.

I applaud the Minister for Education and Skills for admitting that he would like to see a situation where education is 100% funded by the State, as he said in the media recently when this issue came up. The Minister also said there has always been a little tradition of the locals helping out. That this is not acceptable anymore. We have a massive problem in the second level school system whereby some schools are due to open on the Minister's watch with fixtures, fittings and furniture for which subcontractors have not been paid. I have already spoken to the Minister about this issue.

At some point we need to invest in children and give the taxpayers the investment they all deserve. Our children deserve our full commitment to give them all the best chance, not just the children with wealthy parents and machine-like fundraising committees.

Can the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, indicate if the Minister for Education and Skills will put an increase in capitation funding high on the priority list in the budget? I expect to see an increase because it is so important. I am disappointed that the Minister for Education and Skills is not in the House to answer these matters this morning.