Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming before the House to take this Commencement matter. I did receive notification that the payment was in process in the case of the particular school on which I submitted a query regarding the minor works grant.I very much welcome it, but it raises the wider question of the desperate financial dire straits in which many small rural schools find themselves. Bangor Erris, the school that is the subject of the notice we submitted, is typical of most rural schools. There is little point in issuing IT grants, for example, if the school cannot be kept running day-to-day. The minor works grant should be mandatory and not dependent on the money left over at the end of the calendar year. This principal, like many others, was depending on the grant arriving in November. She feared that the school would not survive financially until January, when the first money of the capitation grant is due to arrive, unless the school went into an overdraft position. She feels that she could not do this as she relies on fundraising as it stands.

Bangor Erris is typical of many small rural schools. It is parents and the people of the area who are effectively keeping the school solvent. The capital review 2016 to 2020 states in relation to minor works grants to primary schools that it is not possible to maintain school infrastructure without the payment of the minor works grant and an annual summer works scheme grant.

This principal, like others, is heading into December waiting for this payment, but the school still has to pay the cleaner, the secretary, the electricity, the fire alarm service bill, the oil, the refuse bins, the photocopier, the security alarm service and monitoring, and the rising cost of school insurance without basic financial support. This principal also cites France where the local council looks after all of these basic commodities and services for smaller schools. Forcing a small school principal to source and maintain these services is effectively asking him or her to be a teacher, a principal and an accountant, and to be a contractor. There is a feeling among principals of smaller rural schools that the larger the school, the more money that is available to support it. I know the larger schools have their financial challenges as well, but how does it make sense to give a teaching principal, with 26 pupils of four different class levels in the one classroom, 15 administrative days to do his or her work but give a principal with over seven colleagues and support posts a total of 183 administrative days? It does not tally up. Does the Government have a strategy for helping smaller schools, often with teaching principals, who are currently facing severe financial pressure and rising administrative burdens?

There is a feeling that the smaller the school and the more isolated it is in the area, the more financial constraints it is under. More and more of these schools are trying to teach multiple classes across multiple disciplines. Primary school is hugely important for the education cycle of a child. If the schools continue to be starved of resources, it puts families under because they cannot afford to continually pay into what is supposed to be a free education system. It also puts teachers under pressure as they try to do their jobs and maintain everything that goes on in a school, dealing with home challenges and everything else, and try to teach children of different abilities. Having to worry about whether they can pay the bills or not is not acceptable.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising what is a very real issue for many schools and one that I understand very well. In a former life, I was a principal of a small school. I understand first-hand the difficulties in trying to manage the finances, keep a school afloat, the vagaries of the various funding models and the reliance on them. I heard a good line once when I heard somebody - I think from the INTO - say that we do not see the local gardaí having to do cake sales to run the local Garda station. There are challenges there.

On the minor works grant, I am glad to confirm that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, announced yesterday minor works grants totalling €28.8 million. Schools have been notified and they will get the money in the next week. That will be welcome. I, too, like I am sure most politicians in the House, had a number of emails from principals in the past couple of days and weeks fretting about whether this money was going to come at all. When he announced the minor works grants in 2017, the Minister did confirm that he would be announcing them again late in 2018. From the Minister's perspective, it was flagged that it would be late in the year before they would be announced. That is how it has happened.

The importance of the minor works grant to schools, including smaller schools, is fully understood, notwithstanding the other significant demands on resources at this time. The rates payable under the minor works grant are €5,500 per school plus €18.50 per mainstream pupil and €74 per special needs pupil attending a special school or a special class. Schools can use the grant for a variety of school works, including improvements to school buildings and grounds, improvement or replacement of mechanical and electrical services, the purchase of standard furniture and physical education equipment, the purchase of floor coverings and window blinds, and the purchase of IT-related equipment.

I am aware that primary schools, including smaller schools, would wish to have certainty with regard to the availability of the minor works grant on an annual basis. This is an issue that will be reviewed in the context of the Department of Education and Skills long-term infrastructural planning and the level of resources available under the Government’s ten year public capital investment plan, which is currently under development. The demographic pressures at both primary and post-primary level mean that the Department’s school building programme must continue to focus on delivering additional school places. In 2017, that building programme has successfully delivered almost 19,000 permanent school places, of which more than 13,000 are additional places, with the completion of 46 major school building projects.

I again thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to outline the current position regarding the minor works grant 2017-18.

Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. I am pleased that the announcement was made. I ask that the payments be expedited so that they get into the bank accounts of the schools as quickly as possibly. Could it be considered for next year that the grant would be brought forward? Even if it was brought forward a month, everything would not be brought into the last couple of weeks when teachers are so busy with things like school plays, rounding off the school year with tests and everything else that needs to be done at this time. If the grant was made available a bit earlier, it would ease that pressure. I also think that the funding of national schools needs to be really examined in terms of the resources put in and the value we get back. It is expenditure that we will get back a hundred times over if we provide a proper education for our children and take the pressure off parents as well who find this a very expensive time of the year.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I take on board the Senator's point. It probably will be late next year and there is no point in pretending otherwise. It will be November or December before the minor works grants are paid next year. However, €77 million in capitation funding will be made available to all primary schools in January of next year. That should help considerably toward alleviating funding pressures on schools.